


my love had been frozen deep blue (but you painted me golden)

by MagusLibera



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Earthbender Diggle, Everything Changed When The Fire Nation Attacked, F/M, Family Feels, Fatherhood, Fire Nation (Avatar), Firebender Oliver, Hurt/Comfort, Jealous Laurel Lance, Manipulative Moira, Mutual Pining, Original Team Arrow, Past Child Abuse, Pining, References to Avatar, Southern Water Tribe Felicity, The Hundred Year War (Avatar), Vigilantism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:53:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 37,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27938392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagusLibera/pseuds/MagusLibera
Summary: Twenty-five years after Sozin's Comet was used to wipe out the airbenders, the war is making it's way to the Earth Kingdom. After realising that the cause he was fighting for was a lie, Oliver defected from the army to fight against his own people with his team - an earthbender, two former army comrades and a girl from the Southern Water Tribe. But his mission is interrupted when news from the Fire Nation reaches him, forcing him to head home for the first time in five years.Set during the Hundred Year War from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Knowledge of the show will enhance the story but is not necessary to read it as this is set before the first episode.
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Comments: 50
Kudos: 93





	1. Book One: Earth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [damnsmoaky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/damnsmoaky/gifts).



> A very happy (belated) birthday (plus a month) to Lettie, my kind, supportive, wonderful friend. I am so glad I got to know you, and lucky to have you in my life. I'm sorry this is late but it's ready now and I hope you enjoy it <3
> 
> This is set about 75 years before the events of the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender so could be considered canon compliant but does not tie in to the events of that show beyond a few references. For context: there’s a Fire Nation, Water Tribes, an Earth Kingdom and the Air Nomads. 25 years before this was set, the former Fire Lord (Sozin) used the unprecedented power that a passing comet filled the firebenders with to attack the Air Temples and kill all of the airbenders, starting a Hundred Year War in which the Fire Nation attempted to conquer the world. I may have taken a few liberties in assuming the exact happenings during the early years of the Great War but hey it works for the fic ;)
> 
> Thank you to Cerys for helping me pick a Taylor Swift lyric for the title and thank you to Taylor Swift for co-writing and singing Dancing with Our Hands Tied :D

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After another day fighting against the Fire Nation, Oliver and Felicity have a moment by the lake.

**Book One: Earth**

Overhead, scorching comets of vibrant titian flame streak through the hazy mist of the forest, exploding around the bark of stoic trees and setting the woodland alight in a bright, colourful blaze. Howls of agony break the peaceful silence as the blasts begin to make contact not only with the ancient bark of the trees but with vulnerable flesh and blood. In the far distance, away from where the fires have begun to rage, a dark mass moves through the forest. It approaches, moving as one in a mechanical assault, broken only by the bright sparks of light as flame is released into the open air, streaking ever closer.

To the trained eye, the approaching attacker is not one unidentifiable mass, but an army. Well trained, fanatical and sporting black and red armoured robes with exaggerated spiked shoulder pads, the battalion burns its way towards the quiet forest village, inoffensive and idyllic to most. The people of the village, completely unprepared for any sort of attack, race from their quaint homes in sheer terror, not knowing what to do, where to go or how to respond. Never before having experienced anything even close to the chaos and violence that is being rained down upon them, unprovoked, by the advancing army.

As the soldiers march ever closer, it becomes clear to the fleeing villagers that their attackers are not bringing this horror upon them with any sort of weaponry, but that they themselves are the weapons. The front line of attackers marches forwards as mechanically as their comrades, and as their figures become individually distinguishable, the villagers can see that they are performing a twisted version of something that could once have been beautiful. It is like they are moving through the steps of a dance without any knowledge of how to truly execute it, only having the basic instructions which they carry out with rigid precision. There is no beauty in their jerky, vicious choreography, but it has undeniable effectiveness as they themselves produce the deadly fiery spheres within their own hands through the movements, sending the products of their efforts careening into the fragile wooden houses.

The people are helpless against the assault, none of them ever having trained in combat. There has never been any need for any of them to learn to fight, their kingdom has long been protected by the armies of their king but there has not been anything for them to be protected against in centuries. Only ever individuals looking to cause trouble, never a planned and organised assault. But they now watch the advance of those who, as the fires rage around them, they are forced to acknowledge are members of the legions of the Fire Lord who rules the volcanic Fire Nation in the western reaches of the world. Their minds spark with rumours, whispered tales of an attack over two decades ago upon the scattered temples of the Air Nomads. A conspiracy theory that the airbenders vanished not because they retreated back to their natural home in the clouds but because of a genocide brought upon them by Fire Lord Azulon’s father, Sozin.

Nobody could think to believe the rumours, even though it was strange to pass a quarter of a century without any mention of not just the people of the intangible fourth element, but also the Avatar who should have been born into their ranks. It was strange to conceive of a selfish air nomad, it was not within their teachings, but most of the world had reached a consensus that they have been keeping their young Avatar hidden from the world within their ranks. But this attack, the presence of Fire Nation soldiers on Earth Kingdom territory, it lends an air of credibility to the possibility that there are just… no longer any air nomads. That their temples lay empty, not just hidden from the rest of the world.

They are also forced to think of further rumours, laughed off as an extension of the ridiculous tale of the air nomads, of the dwindling numbers in the Southern Water Tribe. Of the idea that the waterbenders from the frozen reaches of the south are actually vanishing, being taken from their homes and families by the unrelenting attacks of the Fire Nation. There are stories that the Northern Tribe has lost contact with their southerly counterpart, that the might of the south has dwindled into just a handful of remaining defenders.

There is no time to lament the fact that the rumours have always just been laughed down on and not investigated though, not as the soldiers draw close enough to be in touching distance of the citizens, not as they begin to focus their attack and make clear their intentions to wipe out the village and all of its inhabitants as permanently as it is becoming clear they did to the air nomads.

The arrival of the fiery warriors on their doorsteps seems only to increase the panic, nobody knowing what to do. All hope is vanishing from them as they are surrounded on all sides by their enemy, glinting metal boxing them in on all sides, flames dancing in every direction.

It is in that moment that the booms and crackles of the fire and the screams of the victims of the attack are cut through by a strange _thwick_ sound, and the whistle of something thin flying through the air a breakneck pace. And then a scream sounds not from a villager, but from a soldier who stands with an arrow sticking out from a weak point in the neck of his armour. Everything seems to still for a moment, even the fire, waiting for something to happen.

It does.

The air is filled with a flurry of arrows sailing down onto the soldiers from high up in the trees, they drop like flies, all of them blinking bewilderedly as they try to figure out where the volleys are coming from. It is the soldiers’ turns to lose sight of what to do next, how to respond to the resistance that is making their numbers decrease for the first time in their memory. They scramble for a response, allowing whoever is hiding in the trees to take down a third of their ranks before one of them has the bright idea to start shooting her fire in the direction of the assault rather than at the people.

The response is immediate, an arrow flies with eerie precision directly into the centre of the ball of flame, forcing it to implode upon itself in the middle of the air, too high up to harm anyone. The rest of the soldiers get the idea and begin firing up into the trees, but they do not notice the rustle of leaves that signifies movement away from their targeted area. When they finally see what is happening, it is too late. Bodies drop with unprecedented grace from the tall heights, rope keeping them from harming themselves as they land directly between the soldiers and the villagers. They detach themselves from their safety lines without breaking stride, and throw themselves without hesitation into the fray.

No longer can the soldiers afford to focus on their onslaught on the village, instead engaged in a fight for their lives against this motley crew of fighters. The attackers from the trees move with practiced precision, something that speaks to experience and planning. They weave through the Fire Nation soldiers, leaving behind them a trail of bodies. They move so quickly that it is hard to tell how many of them there are, and near impossible for the soldiers to regroup to attack back.

But no matter how practiced and skilled these unexpected defenders are, the sheer number of Fire Nation soldiers seems insurmountable. For every one that is cut down, it seems that another springs up into their place. Not once do the defenders let this deter their mission, they are so focused on breaking their enemies ranks, they move like dancers through the soldiers, making a mockery of the uncoordinated moves that the enemy had approached with. None of them seem to fight with bending, but several figures seem to move through the fire that the soldiers send back at them so gracefully that it never manages to touch them, simply sailing past, fizzling out into the surrounding air. And despite the fact that the only targets that the flames are successfully hitting are the surrounding trees, the blaze feels lesser than before. The fire is tamer, dwindling rather than raging.

It seems like hours of fighting have passed – it can only have been minutes – when a man, the tallest of the village’s defenders, stands tall, strong, still. An unmoveable mountain of a man. He draws the attention of soldiers and villagers alike, the first of all of these defenders to become a distinct figure rather than a deadly blur. He pauses, strength in every muscle, with one arm raised high and his legs planted in the earth as firmly as the trunks of the trees he jumped down from. For a beat, it feels like all of the energy in the area is centred around him, moving into him, the very ground still as it awaits his next move. And then he brings his arm down, slamming his fist into the earth.

It parts before his knuckles, allowing his hand to sink into the stony dirt, unharmed, and shockwaves spread from the spot. The earth cracks and raises, reverberating like water around a fallen pebble in powerful blasts of shifting earth.

The man’s compatriots simply jump, moving with the shaking of the ground and continuing their attack. The soldiers are not so prepared, they go crashing to the dirt as it moves beneath their feet, unbalancing them, making them more vulnerable than ever before. Something else changes in the village, the soldiers all refocus their attentions on the man at the epicentre of the quake – the man who _was_ the epicentre of the quake. His lips quirk in a grin. He raises his body. The earth rises with him. It forms an armour around his form, making the fire that blasts at him simply glance off the stone. He raises an arm again. The stone from deep in the earth follows his lead, raising up in mimicry to form a towering slab that, with a push of his hand that does not even come close to physically touching it, rushes forwards to flatten some more soldiers. He begins to move. Not fluid or dancing like the soldiers or defenders, but strong and commanding of the earth that he controls.

The villagers, untouched by the attack of the ground under his command, experience their own shockwave. “Earthbender.” One of them whispers, not quite reverent, more as if a realisation is dawning upon them. And, without saying another word, several of their number step forwards. There are only a handful, but all of them have the same determined gleam in their eyes. They may not be trained warriors like their attackers or defenders clearly are, but now they know what to do. In synchronicity, all of them mirror the movement of the earthbending defender before them, reaching down into the earth to combine their power and, together, they raise a great wall from deep beneath them. Impenetrable and standing tall and proud between the village and more vulnerable ones who live there and the battle going on.

The village’s earthbenders are not used to using their gifts on other people, only on construction and in aid of their daily lives, but they adapt easily, born to defend. They melt through the wall that they have made, moving away from the relative safety that it provides and proudly joining the fray, copying the man who inspired their fight as they crush their attackers. A young girl tries to run forwards with them, only to be stopped by her father’s strong arms, holding her back. Her mother, just before moving through the wall, regretfully flicks her hand and sends two lumps of rock to her daughter’s hands, binding them so that she cannot put herself in danger by joining the fight with her untrained powers.

With the help of the earthbenders, the defenders make quick work of the remaining soldiers, leaving only those who have fled into the distance, running from their doom. Dust has long since replaced the mist, but as it settles the village’s defenders find themselves facing the other earthbenders. The child’s mother opens her mouth to speak but before she can say anything, she receives a wink from the second tallest of the group, a man nearly but not quite as large as the earthbender, “Stay safe.” He grins and then he rushes towards a tree and grabs one of the forgotten ropes hanging from it. It pulls him back up into the leaves and he vanishes, closely followed by his comrades. The earthbender only remains long enough to warn the villagers, “They will be back. Train, build your defences. Survive.”

And they are all gone.

*************************

Oliver flies through the trees, running along the thick branches up high in pursuit of the fleeing firebenders. He is not about to let them escape, he will not let them return and tell tales of the defenders in the forest, he is not ready to let them come back, prepared for what they will find, an entire army in tow. Not again.

He can hear the rustling of his team all around him, John’s heavier footsteps shaking the leaves around them, Roy’s light, careful tread, Sara’s sure movements. All of them knowing exactly how to move through the trees, exactly where to go. There is no need to let John and his ability to sense the soldiers on the ground lead this time, Oliver can see exactly where they are. He can hear them up ahead, still close enough that he can catch them easily. His bow is in his hand, the rope arrow coiled up and prepared in his hand. He is so focused on his mission, on his targets, that all he knows is the thumping of his own heart, the heat emanating from his team and his enemy, all he can see is the path that he follows through the trees.

What he misses is the direction that the soldiers are running in their frantic panic and need to escape. They are not returning back to their camp, they are not headed back to the Fire Nation post several miles away where the legions recently took an Earth Kingdom town half forgotten by the Earth King that they are now intending to colonise. No, they do not know the forest, they are frightened and not thinking and all of them are following the one fearful man in the front. And they are heading deeper into the forest. Right towards Oliver’s camp. Right towards the temporary home that his team has made by a lake.

Right towards Felicity.

The trees are thinning, opening out into the lake and forcing he and his teammates to descend back to the earth when he notices exactly where they are.

It feels like his heart is stopping when he spots the gentle campfire burning in the centre of a small group of tents, when he catches the gleam of Felicity’s bright blonde hair in the setting sun, when he sees his enemy running directly towards her.

They do not ask her for help, they demand it. With fire in their palms, they rush threateningly towards her. One of them grabs her immaculate ponytail, forcing her to her knees with his fiery palm at Felicity’s vulnerable neck as the others take position around the campfire, clearly seeing their native element as some sort of refuge as they form a tight circle to defend themselves.

Oliver’s vision practically zooms in to watch as the flames in the palm of the man who holds Felicity captive grow out of his control as he watches Oliver and the others appear from the trees. He watches as Felicity’s pale skin reddens painfully as the heat from the proximity of the flame burns her.

His vision goes red, fury filling him with an inferno that none of those half-trained drones could even begin to dream of. They are away from the Earth Kingdom village now, there is no need for him to hold back. No need to keep his secret. He does not plan on letting any of these remaining enemies escape. They hurt Felicity, there is no choice to make.

The very fire that they have surrounded for protection roars to life, making a pillar of blistering heat that reaches all the way into the sky, moving like a living thing in time with Oliver’s fury. The pillar breathes with him, controlled but as wild as the man who is controlling them. The soldiers all look around, bewildered, even more frightened to see their sanctuary turn on them. All of them look down at Felicity, trying to assess whether it is she who is doing this.

Oliver takes advantage of their distraction, closing the distance between him and the campsite and finally, _finally_ allowing his emotions to spill out from within him so that they can dance along his palms. The spark of a second light draws the soldiers’ attentions and they turn to look at him, surrounded by a fire of his own making, something that is as alive as he is, because of him. Their eyes widen, one of them opens her mouth, clearly about to protest. Oliver gives her no chance. The pillar of flame that is in tune with him behind them and the twisting fires surrounding him converge, surrounding all of the soldiers. He can hear them trying to control it, feel the flames’ interest in these new commanders, but his will is far stronger than theirs could ever be. His passion, his love, his rage, they could never even hope to match it, not fighting a war they do not even understand. He bathes them in his fire.

Vaguely, he is aware of the other members of his team watching on. None of them move a finger, knowing that this is something that he needs to do, knowing that the soldiers went too far when they came back here to their camp.

When they touched Felicity.

Only one remains, the man who still stands over Felicity, shaking but more determined to stay alive than he is afraid of what Oliver can do to him.

“Let. Her. Go.” Oliver growls.

“You killed my comrades.” The man says in a reedy voice, “You’re a traitor to your Nation, to your Fire Lord.”

“I knew Azulon personally. He is _not_ my Fire Lord, he’s a madman with far too much power handed to him by his tyrant of a father.” Oliver informs him.

“ _Treason_.” The soldier hisses, “In the name of the Fire Lord, I sentence you and all of your conspirators – including _this_ girl,” he shakes Felicity by her hair and she whimpers with pain, “to dea-”

He has no chance to finish his sentence. His words are cut short as three thin, searing arrows fly in quick succession, aided by the small explosions that he causes, from Oliver’s bow and into the chest of Felicity’s attacker. He falls back, releasing Felicity who slumps to the floor, and falls directly into the still-raging pillar of flame behind him. It engulfs him and his last moments are reflected in Felicity’s eyes, until all that remains is the light of the flame.

Oliver takes a single deep breath, coming to terms with the latest life that has been snuffed out at his hands, but then he rushes forwards, letting go of the flames he has made, focusing on the woman still kneeling before them, drooping to the floor. Next to the once again calm campfire, he falls to his knees and gathers Felicity into his arms, “Hey, hey” he cries, “It’s alright, you’re safe.” he takes a hold of her chin angling her neck so that he can inspect the burn on the side of it.

“Oh,” She says, focusing on him, no regard for herself “You’re hurt.” Her eyes are on his arm where there is a cut from one of the soldier’s spears.

“Hey, it’s nothing,” he assures her, “Nothing matters except that you’re safe.” Something in her releases, letting her sink into his arms fully as he holds her, relieved, by the warmth of the fire, pressing a kiss into her hair.

*************************

Felicity feels cold after Oliver finally lets go of her. He held on to her for so long, his arms desperate and reassuring around her. She could feel his pain and fear from the day bleeding out and away from them. Something had felt different in the way that he had held her. In the past, she has had the pleasure of his arms around her. In moments when he has returned from a dangerous mission, or when he has awoken from an injury that put him under. He has always run so hot, the fire that burns inside him hot enough to keep her warm with just a touch. But something about him today feels hotter, brighter, like she is stood in the centre of his storm, surrounded by his warmth, rather than simply stood beside him, warming herself as if by a fireside. She has never felt safer.

In the end though, it was she who pulled back from him. She could feel his blood starting to seep onto her own skin through her clothes and knew that he needed medical attention, so was forced to pull back (trying to ignore his frantic, hurt expression) and send him off to John, who has some medical training and enough skill to patch Oliver up.

Ordinarily, Felicity would be the one to patch him up. She may not be a bender like the rest of them, nor does she have any skill whatsoever in regular combat, but she is a woman of the Southern Water Tribe and she knows healing better than any of them could hope to. Nobody knows more about the body and medicine than the people of the Water Tribes.

For her entire life, she has watched the Fire Nation come to her home and attack, their visits growing more and more frequent the older she got. She has watched her home dwindle from a great network of villages and forts spread across the South Pole into a scattered number of remaining, terrified holdings. She has watched as the waterbenders, the warriors of her people, have been picked off one by one and dragged away by Fire Nation soldiers to places and fates unknown.

Even as a child, she was curious and demanding, always seeking out more information and trying to build new and exciting inventions to help her people out. Some of her developments are the only things that have protected her people from total annihilation. It was because of that, and her insatiable thirst for information, that she had been allowed to join the waterbenders in healing classes. She has had the privilege to watch how water healing works, and how the benders do it. She has been able to talk to them about how it feels to heal and be healed, what they are causing to happen. And she has been able to emulate their methods without their powers. It is a slower process, but she understands the mechanism of skin knitting back together and she knows how to promote the healing and speed it up as much as naturally possible.

She is well aware that her knowledge has saved her team on more than one occasion, she knows that she has her uses. She knows that her other inventions, the ones outside of medicine that fascinate her far more like her rope arrow and the exploding net arrow that she has made for their arsenals have also proved invaluable to them. But sometimes she feels like she is surplus, like she is only getting in the way. That has never felt more apparent than it does right now.

Diggle has learnt her healing techniques, he could easily take over from her and do a serviceable job. Sure, she still knows more, she has a lifetime of experience but what he knows is more than enough for them to get by on. And, as for her inventions, she could just as easily – maybe more so – develop new kinds of arrows from the safety of some village somewhere. Pretty much everything she does would be doable from a village, actually, somewhere far away where none of them would have to put up with her making them more vulnerable, with her letting the Fire Nation not just enter their camp but take over it and hold her captive right in front of the rest of them.

Times like these are when she is most aware of what a burden she is on her team. When she has made them more vulnerable with her inadequacies, when she watches her team take what she has taught them and apply it perfectly. She left her home years ago when she watched her childhood best friend, a waterbender, be dragged off by soldiers alongside the other members of the tribe. It was then that she knew she could no longer sit back and be content to invent short lived defences and try to patch up the warriors in between attacks. It was the final straw for her, she knew she needed to get out and strike back at the Fire Nation. The only problem was that, once she had made her way up north and into the Earth Kingdom, she had no idea where to go from there.

For months, she travelled through the Earth Kingdom, lost and completely bewildered by the peace that prevailed in the kingdom. That far south, and in the more easterly parts of the kingdom that she travelled through, the war did not even exist. The people had no idea what the Southern Water Tribe had endured in the two decades since the Air Nomad genocide. Most of them did not even believe the genocide was an actual thing that had happened. The Fire Nation had simply not made it that far inland. It was not until she made her way further west that she found the fight.

It quickly became apparent that, in the decades following the genocide, the Fire Nation had focused its conquering efforts on the Southern Water Tribe, almost like they were making their way through the elements. From what she could gather, the Northern Tribe was doing fine, safe behind their impenetrable icy walls and protected by their single city. It had only been in the few years since the coronation of the new Fire Lord he had turned his eye upon the Earth Kingdom, the Southern Tribe almost totally wiped out with only a few waterbenders left to defend it, like crazy Hama.

In the far west, the outermost, isolated villages had suffered at the hands of the Fire Nation. Too far away from Ba Singh Se to be of concern to the Earth King, the villages fell easily. It was there that Felicity started to feel like she could do something, travelling between the besieged villages to teach them medicine and healing and build them whatever defences she could scrape together with their resources before moving on and trying to prepare the next village. She could not help defend them in battle, but she could help them be as ready and able to take on the attacks as possible.

It was during that time that she met John Diggle. He was born in a far western Earth Kingdom town where he lived for most of his life. As a young man, he had trained as a soldier before returning home to marry. Unfortunately for him, not long into his retirement, the Fire Nation had begun their assault on the Earth Kingdom and his home was one of the first targets. It fell, and ever since he has been fighting back against the fire nation, determined to get revenge for his lost home and wife.

Felicity met him when she was patching up an injury after an attack, and the two of them hit it off, quickly realising just how much they had in common. They decided to travel together, Felicity providing intelligence and information gathered from years of watching the Fire Nation’s military strategy and, of course, her doctoring and inventing skills and John providing the muscle and means for her to actually put all of her combat knowledge to good use in physically fighting the enemy.

It was John who told her of the man he had met in battle years before, who had turned and was the only reason that he had survived the fight. Of the rumours of three vigilantes living in the forests and fighting back with devastating results for the Fire Nation. The two of them had set out, still doing their bit but following the rumours of the vigilantes until they found themselves side by side with Oliver, Roy and Sara on the battlefield. Oliver had recognised Diggle immediately and it was the only reason that he even entertained staying back after the fight to talk to them. He wanted to recruit John, having heard about his own resistance efforts, but he was not at all on board with the idea of having Felicity join their ranks too.

He fought, saying that it was too dangerous for her and the only way that she eventually managed to get him to cave was by huffing, “Fine then. You recruit John, we’ll go our separate ways and I’ll go back to travelling through the war zone on my own looking for fights where I can put my skills to good use.” The shocked, terrified expression that brought up had been priceless and Felicity wished that she could preserve it forever. Sara had backed her up and then Oliver had been forced to accept her into their team.

At first, their relationship had been rocky. Felicity was unwilling to forgive him for trying to get rid of her and also for being so frustratingly attractive, Oliver unable to contain his annoyance at the fact that she insisted on being involved in their dangerous mission and that she forced him to let her. But eventually they grew to trust one another’s abilities, they got to know one another better, and Felicity was forced to accept that he only infuriates her so much because she cares so much. Because she wants him so much. But that is not meant to be.

Oliver is the son of a wealthy Fire Nation noble family. Before the war forced him to turn against his nation and take advantage of an explosion that led to him being presumed death to escape and fight back, he was betrothed to a beautiful noblewoman from his home. Somebody who, according to both Sara and Roy, he had a very long, complicated but meaningful relationship with and who he hopes to one day return to. Even though he also has some sort of history with Sara, who is the younger sister of this noblewoman. Sara chose a military life rather than a political one, something that she had the luxury of choosing as the younger daughter, even if her choice has been met with derision from most of her family.

There is no hope that Oliver will ever look at Felicity in the way that she looks at him, no way that he will feel for her what she feels for him. He is too wrapped up in his mission and if, one day, the mission ever ends and the Earth Kingdom finally acknowledges the war and ends it, he will return to his home and his life. He will return to Laurel.

Felicity is content to have him as her friend, a friend who clearly loves her dearly even if not in the way that she wants, if today is any indication. But that does not help how she feels, it does not help her deal with the knowledge that she will never be enough. She will never be enough of an interest for him to choose her, she will never be enough of a fighter for him to trust her like he trusts Sara, she will never be enough of an ally for him to stop worrying about keeping her around. The only reason that he does so is because he cares for her too much and knows that he would lose his mind worrying about her if he did not come back to her every night to see with his own two eyes that she is safe.

But as she sits there, fresh from almost being fried at the hands of an enemy, fresh from having to be saved _again_ , watching as John sews up Oliver’s wound and Roy tinkers with one of her inventions, having learnt all he needs to know how to set the thing up and work it from Felicity, watching Sara go over their strategy maps like a pro, it is hard. She feels like a failure, surplus to requirement and for a minute she considers packing up and leaving right then and there so that she can stop being a burden on them. The only thing that stops her is knowing that they would never let her do that. Especially not when she is still injured from the recent attack.

*************************

Oliver notices how quiet Felicity has grown, so uncharacteristic for her. She is sitting there, perfectly silent, looking completely forlorn. He worries that her brush with harm… with _death_ is affecting her more than she is letting on. What if she has lost her faith in him? Even when they did not get along the best, she has always trusted him to keep her safe. Even though she has every reason to hate him – the son of one of the men who has given orders that have led to her home and people being destroyed, the former general of an army of oppressors, a firebender – she has always trusted him for some reason. And it has always meant the world to him. It is part of why he loves her so dearly, and why he knows that he can never be with her.

But now she is completely withdrawn. She is not sniping at him for getting injured, she is not brushing John aside and demanding to see to his medical care herself, she is not berating Roy for playing with one of her arrows, she is not murmuring quietly with Sara about plans for future attacks. She is just sitting there. One hand over her neck, holding something there that Sara forced upon her to deal with the burn that has been inflicted upon her. Looking so lonely that Oliver feels a physical ache in his chest.

John notices him looking, “You should talk to her.” He says in his deep voice, focusing on finishing off the stitching on Oliver’s arm.

“What if she doesn’t want to talk to me?” he asks, not even thinking about how insecure he sounds.

John just rolls his eyes, “She always wants to talk to you and you know it.” There is a pause before his friend continues, “You held her pretty tight by the fire earlier.”

“She nearly died.”

John scoffs, “Please, you and I both know that wasn’t it. Or, it wasn’t all of it, anyway.”

“Just drop it, Jo-”

“No.” the older man interrupts, “I won’t. I’ve been just dropping it for two years now and I’m done. You know how she feels about you, you need to either tell her how you feel about her or you need to let her go. You owe her that much.”

Oliver works his jaw. John makes it sound so simple but it does not feel simple at all. He needs to keep Felicity safe, he cannot allow himself get distracted by how he feels for her. But, thinking back on earlier, when he had watched that man hold the flame so close to her neck, he knows that he is only fooling himself. Whether he is with her or not, the way he feels about her is like nothing he has ever experienced before. There is no escaping it, he froze up just as much earlier as he would have if he had already told her how he feels about her. Watching her get burned did not hurt any less just because he has never uttered those three essential words to her. But his emotions, his anger and fear and love, it had empowered him. Just like the Masters once taught him, he can use his emotion in a positive way. And he did. He saved her.

The realisation shocks him, making him reassess everything from the last two years of loving her. He just used his feelings to empower him to save her. And he knows, in this moment, there is nothing that could stop him from keeping her safe. Nothing that could change the way that she makes him stronger.

He does not notice that John has finished with his arm, his focus is entirely on her small form, huddled alone looking out on the water of the lake, her natural element. Together or apart, she will always be in danger in this life, always be in danger because of him. But together, they can be stronger. He can watch her closer, she can fuel the bright fire within him.

Without thinking, he rises, ignoring the slight tug of the stitches in his arm, and he makes his way over to her carefully. His footsteps are as silent as ever, so when he gracefully drops himself down to sit beside her, she starts. It makes him smile, that will never fail to amuse him.

“Hey.” He says, voice hushed. Something makes him reluctant to disturb the tranquil peace of her perch on the log, overlooking the nature that surrounds them. Even though he can still hear the sounds of the others at the camp, he feels like the two of them are in their own little silent world.

“Hey.” She responds, equally hushed in the quiet of the approaching night. The sun is practically touching the distal mountains on the other side of the lake, the sky a fiery picture. This time, sunset, it is when Oliver feels most connected to Felicity. The point between night and day is the point where his element and hers meet, the sun that his ancestors worshipped and the moon that taught her people how to bend both hang in the sky, a perfect balance.

Sometimes, because she is not a bender, Oliver forgets that Felicity is a Water Tribe girl and his natural opposite in so many ways beyond their personalities. But also he has so much in common with her and her natural home than he ever could with John or an airbender. That, he thinks, is how it is supposed to work. Not opposites, antitheses. Water and fire mirroring one another just as earth and air do. In some ways, her lack of bending only increases that dichotomy that he loves so much between them. She is so different from him and the people he has spent his whole life surrounded by, but her differences match his perfectly. Where he has had a privileged life of everything being handed to him including his ability to wield his element, and has had to learn how to work for things, she has spent a lifetime fighting for everything. Even the right to learn medicine and healing. She has spent a lifetime finding creative solutions to prove that she is just as worthy and magnificent as any bender could be and through her remarkable mind and spirit, she has more than proven that to Oliver. To him, she is the most amazing person in the world.

The air is heavy between them, the sun kissing the earth as it dips, shifting from his time to hers, and Oliver cannot help but notice just how close they are sat, just how near her face, her eyes, her lips are to his when she turns to look away from the picturesque view and at him. He has so much he wants to say – so much that he needs to say – but in that moment, he cannot remember for the life of him why he has fought against his feelings for so long. She is his perfect everything and he is only hurting them both by fighting that. They work so perfectly together, matching each other’s weaknesses with their strengths, aligned in their thinking in so many ways. They can only work just as perfectly in other ways, away from the battlefield and their friendship.

Breathing heavily, he murmurs into the shrinking space between them, “Felicity, I-,” but he is lost for what to say next. He has no idea how to convey everything that she makes him feel, he cannot fathom where to begin with everything that he needs to tell her. And she is so close, and she is so beautiful with the dying sunlight reflecting back from her, with her bright blue eyes shot through with the bright orange of the fiery sky. He cannot resist. He dips closer, closing the distance between them until there is only a hair’s breadth between their lips and his eyes are closing, excited, apprehensive, adoring, anticipating-

“Oliver!” Sara cries, making Oliver jump backwards, prepared for an attack. Nothing happens, just Sara brandishing some parchment at him and he notices a messenger hawk perched on one of the tent poles. Panting from the intensity of the previous broken moment, he looks back to Felicity. It is hard to tell how much of the redness is the vanishing sun and how much is the blush that he gave her but that is not what draws his attention. No, he is more focused on the tears gathering in her eyes.

  
“Feli-” he tries, only to be cut off again.

“Oliver!” Sara repeats, and he is about one more ‘Oliver’ away from shooting an arrow – or a blast of flame – in her direction, “Oliver, you need to come see this!” something in her tone tells Oliver that it is serious. Serious enough that whatever he and Felicity were on the cusp of is going to have to wait.

“Coming.” He announces with a sigh, sparing one more glance at Felicity, who is resolutely not looking at him, and keeping her eyes focused on the last few rays of the sun as it vanishes below the horizon. “I’m sorry.” He whispers, not knowing whether she is hearing him or not, and then he stands and walks away, letting his hand brush over her shoulder and squeeze it lightly as he goes.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, frowning with annoyance.

“You need to see this.” Sara says solemnly. Impatient, he snatches the parchment from her hands, “It’s the latest news from the Fire Nation.” She tells him and then it makes sense why she was calling. Sara is the one who deals with all news from the Fire Nation, as far as her family is aware, she is retired from the army and using her time to travel around the Fire Nation and its new colonies. She receives regular updates, as well as regular news from their home country.

He reads it quickly, eyes sliding across the page as he takes every little word in, feeling his heart grow colder and slower as he does so. His entire world falls apart around him. _Fire nation citizen killed by insurgent Earth Kingdom attack… woman leaves behind a young, fatherless boy… will suggests that the boy’s father was none other than the late General Oliver Queen, a hero who died in the noble pursuit of spreading the Fire Nation’s prosperity to the rest of the world. Queen’s surviving family investigating the claim. If true, Queen’s son is now an orphan._ None of the words make sense. He cannot put them in a sensible order in his head. All that he can see are the words _father_ and _Oliver Queen_ and _son_ and _orphan_.

He has a son.

He has a son whose mother just died.

His son needs him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...yes I split this in four so I could mimic the seasons of Avatar and include all four elements.
> 
> The next few chapters will be up over the next two weeks! It's all already written and I'm working on some BIG stuff right now that I'm hoping will be up by the end of the year.


	2. Book Two: Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back home in the Fire Nation, many things have changed. But some have not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the lovely comments on the first chapter, I promise I will get around to replying but this has honestly been one of the hardest weeks of my life so it might take a little while.
> 
> That being said, I have already finished and edited this whole fic so I might as well post as promised. I hope you enjoy this Lettie ily <3

**Book Two: Fire**

His mind fills with questions. His past is hardly a clean slate, he has been with his fair share of people, fire nation citizens and otherwise. Who was the mother? Is it true? What must his mother think, what must _Thea_ think? He never wanted her to know about that part of his life. But he has a son. A son who is all alone in the world now, whose life has just been turned upside down. Whether it is true that it was an Earth Kingdom attack or not (most likely not), the boy has just lost his mother, the only parent he has ever known. And now the world thinks that he might be the son of a dead war admiral, the heir to a long line of Fire Nation nobility. He must be so confused and scared and hurt.

Oliver’s heart begins to ache, the need to see this child, to protect him, rising within him. Whether the boy is his or not, he feels a sudden sense of responsibility to make the boy’s life better. And then he thinks about the child’s upbringing. He has no idea how old the child is, but he knows that the education system in the Fire Nation has been growing progressively more fanatical and designed to brainwash the youth into blindly following the Fire Lord, into believing that Azulon is some sort of god.

Oliver knows Azulon, he is no god. He is a madman and now Oliver’s son is being taught that the Fire Nation’s attacks on the innocent people of the world are a good thing. He is being lied to and manipulated and Oliver is in physical pain thinking about it, he cannot just stand by and let it happen. He is alive, he has the power to change the boy’s life, he knows better than the new system, he was born before the Air Nomad Genocide to a noble family, he barely remembers a time before the crusade but he was not taught the same way that children are being taught nowadays. He has the luxury of free thought.

“Oliver?” he hears his favourite sound in the world, the voice of the woman he loves. It startles, breaking his dazed fixation on the page before him and he turns to look at her. She has red eyes, he notices, like she has been crying. But none of her own emotions, whatever they may be, are visible in that moment. All that he can see is her concern for him, “What is it?” she asks, “What’s wrong?”

With a shaking hand, he passes her the news from his homeland, not giving her a chance to fully take it all in before he, voice shaking as much as his body, tells her, “I- I have a son. I have a son and he’s all alone.” Felicity finishes taking in the words written on the page and then looks up, directly into his own eyes that he knows must be reddening to match hers as he holds back tears.

“Wait a minute,” he hears Sara say but he does not take his eyes away from Felicity and, in turn, she does not look away from him either, “How can we be sure that he’s actually your son? Don’t be rash, Oliver.” Sara tells him, “Wait to find out the truth before you jump to conclusions. I bet this woman wasn’t the first to claim you’re her kid’s father and she won’t be the last.”

“It does seem convenient that this is happening now that the boy has nobody else left,” John muses, “But it is also strange that she didn’t say something earlier. Surely if she was trying to get something from the Queens she would.”

“It’s not like we can do anything anyway.” Roy chimes in, “What difference does it make if he’s Oliver’s kid. His mom is still gone and, as far as the world is concerned, Oliver is too. This is in the hands of the family now.”

Oliver ignores all of them, only having the eyes for Felicity, only knowing what he feels deep within him. This boy is his, he knows it. “ _He needs me_.” He breathes, pained. Pleading. He has no idea what to do, how to react. He feels more lost than he ever has before, even when he learnt about the hideousness of the cause that he had fought for in the name of Azulon.

Felicity’s eyes harden but they still do not leave his, she hears him. She understands him, “Then we have to go to him.” She says it so simply, just offering the solution without any debate or fuss. She does not even second guess the ‘we’ of it, making sure that he knows that he has her, that she will be by his side for whatever is to come. He feels a little less lost.

“We have to go to him.” He repeats, laying a thankful hand on Felicity’s shoulder, revelling in the feeling of her muscles moulding to the shape of his hand as she relaxes into the touch, clearly relieved that he has included her.

None of the others say a word after that. They know that, whenever Oliver and Felicity agree on something, it is what needs to be done. So it will be done.

*************************

The preparations only take a few weeks, Felicity is brilliant like that. It is part of what makes her such an integral member of the team. They decide to make it look like Oliver has been stranded on an island for the entire span of time (over three years) since his assumed death when his command ship, the _Queen’s Gambit_ , had a hole blown in it and the remaining pieces sunk down into the depths of the ocean less than two years after he joined the war. Choosing the island is the hard part. They have to find one that could easily have gone unnoticed by the various sailors that travel the oceans for the entire length of Oliver’s presumed death, but that could also have supported Oliver’s life for that time. And on top of that it also needs to be close enough to the _Gambit_ ’s last known location that Oliver could feasibly have survived drifting on the ocean with no resources for long enough to get there. It is difficult, most inhabitable islands are inhabited already or, at least, extremely popular stops for sailors looking to have a quick break on dry land during their travels.

But eventually, Felicity finds the place. It is uncharted on most maps, just a tiny little speck in the ocean that, with the right winds, somebody could drift to across the water from the wreckage within about three days. The island is mountainous and dangerous, about as close to uninhabitable as physically possible but the forests around it all could reasonably sustain a well-trained stray. Such as a noble Fire Nation admiral. But it is about as far from a nice spot for a sailor to take a break as possible and the rocky nature would never allow a settlement to survive there and, though it is far north enough that it is utterly freezing, Oliver is a firebender and he can easily keep himself warm with the heat the constantly lives within him. Felicity checks and triple checks the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom logs that she can get a hold of to confirm that nobody has made a visit there – that nobody has done more than pass by from a great distance – in five years. And then it is perfect.

Oliver makes his way there, prepared to spend a week setting up and making it look like he has been there for years. Roy stays at camp, under strict instructions to continue the work of the team and to wear Oliver’s green hood as well as his own red one until Oliver can return so that they can keep up appearances. Diggle goes to a nearby village, hiring a fishing boat to do a day’s work for him along the waters that will lead them to Oliver and Lian Yu, the island, in precisely a week’s time. Felicity and Sara – once Felicity has done all of the work that she can to prepare the team and Oliver for both Oliver’s return to the living world and the next few weeks or months or however long it may be of their mission being left to just Roy and Diggle – head to the Fire Nation.

*************************

Felicity has never been to Oliver’s ancestral home before. She has never seen the Nation that has spent her entire life trying to tear everything away from her and her people. Her mind is a mess of nerves and curiosity and the old anger that used to rise within her whenever she watched an attack from the shadows as she heads there under the guise of being a friend and servant that Sara has picked up in her years of travelling.

She is posing as a simple Fire Nation girl that Sara met in the outskirts of the Fire Nation, somebody involved in the new colonies they are starting in their destroyed Earth Kingdom villages, and the thin, skimpy garb that their people wear feels extremely foreign and uncomfortable to her. She is used to thick, coverall clothes designed to protect the vulnerable human body from the colds of the poles. The people of her tribes are designed to withstand the cold, to feel at home with it. She has never even coped well during Earth Kingdom summers since leaving home, her nature built to keep her warm and absorb as much heat as possible. If she were a waterbender, she would be able to freeze the water in her surroundings to cool herself off but she is not and, before they are so much as close to the heart of the Fire Nation, she can feel herself suffering in the high temperatures even as Sara looks more and more comfortable the hotter that it gets.

Sara gives her a sympathetic grimace, teasingly asking, “Now do you get what it’s like for us in those Earth Kingdom winters?”

“No!” Felicity splutters, insulted, “This does not even begin to compare!” she explodes at her friend, half playfully annoyed and half trying to hide the fact that Sara’s words do unintentionally but genuinely hurt as they serve as a reminder of her own deficiencies.

“First of all,” she presses on, “The only reasonable comparison for how you Fire Nation lot feel in Earth Kingdom winter is a member of a Water Tribe in an Earth Kingdom summer. Second, that’s not even a fair comparison when it comes to you and I because you are a firebender and can warm yourself up in winter, I can’t cool myself down in the summer because the water is a stubborn kind of friend that’s nice to me but really doesn’t listen if I want it to do something.” She can see Sara grinning at her babbling but she is still not done, “Thirdly, even with all of your fancy bending I’d like to see you handle winter in the south pole even half as well as I’m handling this miserably hot Fire Nation summer.”

“It’s barely even summer,” Sara laughs, “I mean… here we don’t really have the four seasons, just summer and not-summer, I guess. But right now we’re already on our way into not-summer. Just you wait and hope we’re out of here before the summer really kicks in next year.” Felicity blanches. It gets hotter than this? Is that even possible? She thinks that she might be in danger of physically melting if it does.

“Ugh.” She moans, tugging on the opening of her clothing that reveals pretty much all of her stomach, “Oliver had better get here soon, I want to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

“It’s okay, Felicity.” Sara says comfortingly, “Just give it a month or two and the temperature will basically be down to Earth Kingdom summer levels!” her words make Felicity groan. She wants to cry. She hates Earth Kingdom summer, even if it does make her unusually pale (for a member of the Water Tribe, not for a Fire Nation native) skin a nice tanned colour.

Sara is right, it gets even hotter the closer they get to the Fire Nation Capital City, and Felicity feels completely wrong. She is so far from water, from cool weather, she feels like her skin is crawling. Volcanic mountains stand tall in every direction. The earth itself seems to radiate with the heat that this entire place is giving off. Felicity should not be there, for once she wishes that Oliver had won when he briefly tried to argue about her participation in the mission but he had given up, too distracted by thoughts of his son and what the future would hold. Needing her friendship and support too much. She thinks.

She and Sara do not immediately make their way back to Sara’s family home in the Royal Plaza, a district that houses the lower ranking nobility and elite of the Fire Nation. The city is located right atop the mountain. Or volcano. Felicity cannot tell. She does not want to ask, afraid of what the answer will be.

But they wait before heading there. They know that their sudden, inexplicable appearance, followed by Oliver’s impending return, all so soon after the news about Oliver’s potential son has broken will just be too suspicious. It can be passed as a coincidence that Oliver gets found so close to his son being revealed. But three times is a pattern and Oliver’s childhood friend and ex-fling showing up in between those events is likely to raise at least one person’s suspicions and lead to them spotting the pattern.

No, they cannot allow that to happen, so they instead make camp in some caves that they find just outside of the city in an uninhabited area. It is quite cosy in there and Felicity is grateful to be out of the sun. She and Sara will have to find a way for her to spend as little time out in the open and as much hidden away from the light as possible if she is to survive this without passing out from the heat.

Spending time with Sara is always an interesting experience. The skilled woman and Felicity have always got along fairly well, aside from some issues that Felicity has had reconciling how badass Sara is with how useless she feels sometimes. Sara is a lot of fun though, and she always flirts with Felicity which is nice. A reminder that she is at least attractive to somebody. She knows that Sara is mostly joking and trying to get a rise out of her when she does it but she also knows that, if she ever flirted back or took the fighter up on one of her joking offers, Sara would gladly go for it and that is a huge ego booster. Especially on days when it seems like Oliver does not even see her as anything other than some weak non-bender that he has to take care of.

Sometimes, Felicity has seriously considered accepting one of Sara’s offers. She knows that it would be easy, they would have fun and enjoy one another’s company and there would never be any risk of them losing one another because Felicity knows that Sara is not looking for anything serious and Sara knows that Felicity’s feelings are too caught up on Oliver for it to be anything other than good friends who find one another attractive giving in to that attraction. But every time she has considered it, she has realised that it would never work. It would never make Oliver jealous or force him to have some miraculous epiphany and, if it did, his epiphany would more likely pertain to Sara than Felicity. And even though Oliver has never even looked at her twice, whatever friendship she has with him and the way that she feels about him keep her from feeling like she can have anything, even something meaningless, with anybody else. Plus he and Sara have a whole history and Sara’s sister is his betrothed and it would just feel weird. But it is nice to think about.

So a few nights in a cave with her friend, away from all of the confusion of being around Oliver and being forced to overthink that moment by the lake when she had thought he was about to kiss her, it is good for her. Until Sara is sat there flirting like always, both of them finishing their dinner, and then the older woman goes unexpectedly serious, “So… are we going to talk about that night the other week or not then?” she asks.

“What night?” Felicity asks, hoping that Sara is not talking about _that_ night at all.

“You know the night.” Sara rolls her eyes, “After you got taken captive and Oliver just about lost his mind and then he held you for like an hour.” Felicity purses her lips, intent on pretending that she has no idea what Sara is talking about, that she has not thought of that night every night since as she lays in bed. That she has not been dreaming about it ever since.

“And then you and Oliver were sat before a beautiful, romantic full moon and a bright lake before the sunset and he looked at you like you’re the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen and he couldn’t even see anything else beyond you and the two of you started leaning in to one another to finally put us all out of our misery and kiss before I opened the letter.” Sara says bluntly, tacking on, “And I mean, fair, you are freaking gorgeous.” With a grin to lighten the conversation and draw Felicity back in.

“That’s not what happened.” Felicity denies, pained and not meeting her friend’s eyes.

“Of course it is.” Sara contradicts her, “He was going to kiss you like he’s been desperate to for years and he would have done it if I hadn’t interrupted. Which, by the way, Digg is hugely mad at me over. He’s been waiting for you two to get it together for as long as he’s known you.”

“Sara,” Felicity whispers, tears springing to her eyes, “Please… please don’t. Don’t tease me about that. I know Oliver… I know he doesn’t… that he would never look at me like that. Please don’t make it hurt more than it already does.”

Sara softens, shock filling her face, “Felicity… you do know that Ollie’s in love with you, don’t you?” she asks, baffled, “You do realise that he would do anything for you and the only thing that’s stopped him from kissing you for the last few years is his own issues and nothing to do with you, right?”

“Sara, no.” Felicity shakes her head, “That’s… you’re wrong. It’s all wrong. I’m just his friend. He feels responsible for me. He’s not in… he could never _love me_ like that. Which you should be happy about because it means he can reunite with your sister now that he’s going back!” she tries to paste a smile on her face but can feel that it is more of a grimace. Nonetheless, she finds the courage to look back up at her friend, trying to prove that she is fine with what she knows to be true and that it does not tear her apart every single day, every time that Oliver looks at her.

Much to Felicity’s surprise, Sara grimaces. “What?” she asks.

“I mean the real issue here is that you think that Oliver is somehow still in love with a woman he was never really in love with to begin with instead of you – with whom he is hopelessly in love. But aside from that, Ollie and Laurel were never good for one another. Their relationship was a mess, they were only really together because it’s what they had been told that they _should_ do. Ollie was expected to find a respectable, wealthy young woman to uphold his family image and values and it was clear from when they were quite young that Laurel was Moira’s favourite pick. And Laurel was always pushed at Oliver. We’re from a less old and powerful family and Mom always wanted Laurel to marry into one of the stronger ones and the Queens are amongst the strongest. Honestly, I’m not sure if Laurel was ever really in love with Oliver or if it was the idea of him – what he represented, what she wanted him to be.

“But it was never him. He was never fully invested in their relationship, he wasn’t ready to be a fiancé or a husband. She was more focused on their lifestyle and image, not him and his needs. It was toxic, that’s why he cheated. There’s no excuse for it, but you can see how it happened and I was a selfish little girl who had always been overlooked for her big sister so when he turned his attentions on me, I thought it was some way that I could be better than her.” Sara finishes her explanation and Felicity has no idea what to say. She had known a lot of these things before, like the fact that Oliver had cheated on Laurel with Sara and the pressures put upon him by his family that led to him enlisting in the army to get away, the process sped up following his father’s death. But having it all laid out for her like that, everything together and explained fully, it explains a lot.

It does not explain the way that Oliver looks every time that Laurel is mentioned though. Wistful and longing and regretful, like he is wishing that things could have been different for them and he could go back to her. It does not explain the fact that he has never corrected anybody when they refer to Laurel as his betrothed. The only thing that can explain that, as far as Felicity is concerned, is that he did love her, he just did not know how to show it. And now he can go home to her and be with her and that regret and pain can finally leave his eyes. He will be happy. And Felicity will be happy as long as he is. Even if it destroys her a little to have to watch him find that happiness with another woman.

“Thank you for telling me,” Is all that she says to Sara, “But Oliver is not the kind of man to just let an opportunity go by. He’s always done what needs to be done. If he truly wanted me, he would not have waited for two years. But that’s okay, I came to terms with it a long time ago. If it’s alright with you, I’m going to turn in for the night now.” And with that she stands and retreats to her bedroll in the cave, ignoring Sara’s frustrated mumbling under her breath as she goes.

Neither of them mention any of it again in their remaining days there.

Three days later, they get the messenger falcon bearing the news that Oliver has been found and is returning to his home in the Fire Nation capital, and they make their own preparations to go back too.

*************************

Being back home is far more difficult than Oliver had expected. Somehow in all of the planning for coming back here, he had not factored in the human element. He had been so focused on his son and what needed to be done that he forgot about all of the other people he has left here. Like Thea, his baby sister who is no longer a baby but an elegant young lady and a fierce firebending warrior. Like his mother, who, despite her aloof, manipulative nature, he still loves because she is his mother and who he has missed dearly. Like Tommy, his childhood best friend.

Reconnecting with Thea is hard, she is so different to the person he left behind. No longer is she the bubbly child he knew, she is now colder and more focused than he ever wanted her to have to be, having spent the last five years honing her firebending, determined to avenge his name by joining the army and fighting the Earth Kingdom. Even if his mother’s ideas for her future are very different and definitely do not involve her going off to war. He gets the impression that their mother is unaware of these plans, and unaware of just how well trained her daughter is.

His mother is just as difficult. For a day, she is warm and motherly and everything that he has missed about her as she holds him and cries with joy to have him home. But after that, she slips back into the woman he knows, focused on re-establishing his place in society and doing damage control from all of the discretions that have been overlooked in the past five years thanks to his being legally dead but that are now being dragged back up. The soft moments become fewer and further between.

Tommy is easy, just so long as he pretends that nothing has changed. But they are so different now, their paths have diverged and Tommy has only grown more charming and carefree if anything where Oliver has become the man he was always meant to be in the face of realising that his nation is run by dictatorial tyrants who thrive on terrorising unsuspecting villages.

He has precisely two days to get used to it though, before he gets word that Sara, and therefore Felicity, have returned to the city. They are sat over dinner when Raisa brings the news to Moira and the matriarch turns to Oliver, “Isn’t that nice, Oliver.” It is not a question, “Sara has returned from her travels to celebrate your return home. We’ll have to invite the Lances around so that they can see you.” And there it is. What Oliver has been waiting for.

Tommy informed him almost immediately after his return that Laurel is still yet to find somebody else to marry since his death, mistakenly believing that the information is some that Oliver will be interested in. But ever since he found out, Oliver has been waiting apprehensively for his mother to attempt to push him and Laurel back together, to press him into marrying her and fulfilling the betrothal from so long ago. He has no intentions of doing so. He just wants to get his son (who nobody has so much as mentioned to him, he is interested to note) and get out. To go back to his life in the Earth Kingdom where Felicity and their team are and they can all be happy and comfortable and fight against the oppression that his nation is causing.

But despite how much he is dreading the visit from Laurel and her parents, he is also excited for it. It will mean that he gets to see Felicity again, something that he has been desperate for. Ever since their night by the lake where he came so close to kissing her, he has been dying to talk to her properly again. They were just too busy before this and he knows that the heart of his nation, her natural opposite, surrounded by enemies and on a mission is probably the worst place to talk to her about it. But he has no idea how long they will be stuck here and he does not intend to let what could potentially be months of re-educating William and Thea before it is safe to leave pass without them clearing the air and, hopefully, moving to the next phase of their relationship.

It has also been the longest that he has gone without seeing her for almost as long as he has known her. Excluding that time that he got stabbed by a sword master he fought a few months after they met and was presumed dead (wrongfully, again) and had to spent two months healing and searching the frontlines of the Earth Kingdom before he reunited with his grieving team, he has scarcely gone more than forty-eight hours without seeing her graceful face. The last few weeks – all alone on that island and (as far as his mission and emotions go) all alone in the Fire Nation, surrounded by remnants of his past – they have been some of the toughest of his life. He has missed his team, he has missed fighting to liberate the victims of the Fire Nation and, most of all, he has missed Felicity.

So the four days that he has to wait between his mother announcing that she intends to invite over the Lances and them actually paying the visit to the Queen mansion are some of the longest days of his life. He just wishes that he could have some way of knowing whether or not Sara will be able to find a reasonable reason to bring Felicity along with her so that he could know if the ache in his chest that has been growing with each day away from her will be soothed or not. But he does not, he has no way to contact his team. Here in the capital it would be far too noticeable if he sent a messenger falcon to the Lances’ house, or if he tried to send some servant with a message or something. So he just has to wait.

When the day finally comes, Oliver is the most excited he has been since he first saw his baby sister after five years apart. He knows that he should really have spent the last few days focusing on how to broach the subject of William and how to find the boy and get him out as quickly as possible but he has been occupied with worrying about Felicity and how she is handling the acrid heat of his homeland, of how she is settling into the Lance household and how she is being treated by the other servants and the family. Besides, he knows that he has no hopes of getting anything done properly until he can find the best way to get her involved again.

The Lances arrive on palanquins, three of them in total. It makes Oliver grin to see that. Sara and Laurel must be on the outs again. Already. Possibly Quentin and Dinah too. When they had been young enough that Sara had basically still been a baby, they had travelled in just one palanquin as a family. As the girls had grown, that had become less and less possible, their weight on top of the heavy wooden frame just too much for even six servants to bear. Thus, the girls had been given their own palanquin by their parents and they travelled in the two.

That had lasted only until the sisters both reached their teenaged years. After that, their diametric personalities and stubbornness led to enough fights that their parents realised they would have to start travelling separately. By that point, Dinah and Quentin’s relationship had been crumbling apart (which everybody knows, but nobody ever mentions) and it had been the perfect excuse for Dinah to start riding with her daughter, Quentin to get some peace and quiet and Sara to get the freedom she often needed from her mother and sister. Except for when Laurel was entertaining, then she had to put up with Dinah riding with her and the constant pestering about her lifestyle choices that came with that.

There is something comforting and familiar about seeing Quentin descend from his own palanquin all alone and Laurel and Dinah emerge together, the mother fussing over her daughter’s appearance in an attempt to make her look as perfect as possible. But Oliver does not have eyes for any of them, he is focused on the third group of men who are lowering the wooden frame to the ground to allow the rider to leave. Sara emerges, stretching without a care for propriety and earning herself a dirty glare from her mother which Oliver knows she probably did intentionally. His heart begins to sink as she catches his eye and winks, not so much as looking back at the curtains she has emerged from.

But then he sees them part and a delicate foot emerges, followed by the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. The breath leaves his body, his brain short circuits for a brief moment because – _wow_. That is an image that will never leave his mind for as long as he lives. His Felicity, dressed in the traditional garb of his people with all of her beautiful, smooth skin on display beneath the barely-there criss-crossed red fabric around her torso that stops so high on her legs. His Felicity, descending from a palanquin like the gracious Queen she would be, the goddess that he knows she is.

It is striking and it… does things to him that he is not in a position to act on and all that he wants to do is run over to her and kiss the life out of her but it is also so, so _wrong_. Felicity is no explosive Fire Nation girl. She is no politician or manipulative woman of high society like the women Oliver grew up around. She is a tempestuous girl of the Southern Water Tribe. Calm and care giving and, at the drop of a hat, fierce and violently protective, as unpredictable as the oceans she is so at home in. She is from a village, a quaint little place where she was respected and fought for everything she had, a true community where the people worked together to survive the extremes of their arctic lifestyles. She is born to live amongst nature, where she is most at home. To be surrounded by the water and trees and life that she loves so much – not the burning rocks that he was born surrounded by.

This is no place for her. It is no place for him anymore either. And his resolve to complete his mission and get them both out of here and back to the Earth Kingdom that provides their middle ground, the place where both of their elements can live and they can be happy, it strengthens tenfold.

His eyes are still riveted on Felicity though, he is just a man in love and the one he so adores is half naked right before him. It is impossible to tear his eyes away.

Which is how he does not notice a smirking Laurel approaching him until it is too late. “Hi, Ollie.” She simpers, “I can’t tell you how much it meant to me when we got the news that you survived. I mourned you for so long, I missed you.” She blinks up at him with tears in her eyes but Oliver feels nothing.

He knows Laurel, he has known her for their entire lives and he knows the games she plays. He knows when she is being genuine and, whilst she may be genuine here, it is not because of him. It is because of what he represents, and the chance that he offers for her to be a Queen just like she has always dreamed. “I waited for you.” She outright lies. Oliver holds in a scoff. She may still be unmarried but he can guarantee that it is not because she waited for him.

“It’s good to see you, Laurel.” He says truthfully because, whatever issues he has with her and their relationship, they do have an extensive history and he remembers all of the good times they had together. They were once friends, before all of the betrothal stuff got in the way and Laurel became more concerned with their future in society than their lives together. His time at war, and particularly his time since, may have taught him how to read all of her manipulations like a book and made him see how their relationship was never truly right but he will always care for her wellbeing. He will always regret that they did not just stay friends.

A gleam in her eye sparks at his words, they have unintentionally given her hope that they can rekindle their relationship and she can marry him, he knows. It is regretful that he will have to hurt her by leaving without another word, but his son is more important than Laurel’s hurt feelings. His mission is more important than his standing in society and his failed betrothal. She reaches up to hug him, making him tense up with discomfort even as she presses her entire body up against his. Disengaging as quickly as socially acceptable, he turns his attention to Sara.

“Sara,” he grins, pleased to see his friend and comrade, to no longer be alone in his mission, “How have you been?” he asks, drawing her into a friendly hug. She knows what he has really been asking.

“Oh, you know.” She grins back, clearly enjoying their shared secrets against her family, “I’ve been around. Dashing all over this _Great Nation_ of ours in search of the next best thing. I spent some time in the most incredible caves recently, it was very… cosy there.” Meaning: she and Felicity hid out in a nearby cave system and came into no troubles there. Good.

“And, of course, none of my travels would have been nearly as entertaining without my good friend and aid Tee here.” Tee. Felicity’s fake Fire Nation name. Felicity would be far too strange a name for a rural Fire Nation girl. And she is being introduced to him, bowing respectfully in a way that Sara must have taught her.

“Nice to meet you, Tee.” Oliver says with a smile, trying to convey a thousand things to her as he looks into her eyes. She smiles back, nervous as she looks at his mother and sister, who stand behind him. He bows back, something that makes all of the others gasp in shock as it is not appropriate for somebody of his status to bow to somebody of the social standing that ‘Tee’ has but he does not care. Actually, their reactions make it more worth it.

He looks up to see Quentin and Dinah glaring at him reprovingly and Laurel looking affronted before all three of them turn their disgusted stares at Felicity. It worries him for a moment but then he can see the grins that both Felicity and Sara are both trying to hold in and the way that they are internally giggling as they look at one another and he gets it. Sara’s family must think that Felicity is her new lover and they are clearly not happy about it. They have never supported Sara’s carefree way of loving whomever takes her fancy for however long it lasts. They expected her to be more like Laurel, a picture of purity and perfection (though Oliver can attest to the fact that she is not the kind of pure her parents are under the illusion she is) and Sara has never been one to conform if conformity does not suit her.

By the way that they are suspiciously looking between Felicity and Oliver, he can tell that they are also worried that she will get in the way of him reuniting with Laurel. She will, but not for the reasons they are fearing. They are both aware that, in his youth, Oliver had enjoyed a sex life not dissimilar to Sara’s, and that he was never exactly faithful to Laurel. They never seemed to mind that, as long as it did not get in the way of their betrothal, but when he slept with Sara it pushed them over the edge and he can see their wariness at his warm reactions to seeing Sara and Felicity. It amuses him and he finds himself holding in a chuckle too.

Thea breaks the intense glaring match that Sara’s family are having by bouncing forwards and introducing herself to ‘Tee’ politely but carelessly. Raisa has raised Thea to be respectful to servants, just like she raised Oliver. Not because she specifically taught them to be, it most definitely was not a part of either of their curriculums, but through the way that she has always loved them and cared for them. They both have a lot of respect for her and that has led to them having respect for all servants, even if Thea is a little careless and false as she introduces herself to Felicity, not seeing the point in getting too close to somebody she is under the impression will not be around for a while. Watching the exchange, even though Thea is merely polite and not warm, Moira’s lips tighten. She does not have the same consideration for servants that Oliver and Thea do.

It is as Thea is finishing up her greeting to Felicity that Laurel decides that there is no longer enough attention on her and decides to make her presence very much known again by sidling up into Oliver’s personal space, hooking her arm forcefully through his and actively turning him away from Felicity, Sara and his sister as she leads him deeper into his family’s home, saying, “Ollie, come, we should catch up! Tell me everything about the last few years, I need to know!”

He just about manages not to sigh, knowing that it will be a long night.

*************************

Felicity can tell how uncomfortable Oliver is with Laurel constantly draping herself all over him, even as he pushes her away on several occasions. He has never been good with touch, he usually has to be in a certain mood. After everything that he went through during the war and all of the horrors that he has seen fighting against the army he was once a part of, he finds it hard to let people close. He is too scarred, both physically and mentally, to trust people being near him. There are only a handful he can tolerate, and usually he prefers to be the one initiating contact.

This is the opposite of that and, no matter how uncomfortable he grows or how much he makes it clear that he would very much like Laurel to stop touching him, she is either not taking the hint or intentionally ignoring his wishes. She also keeps looking at Felicity very strangely and she keeps sneering at Sara. Felicity has no idea how the two sisters can have so much animosity between them. She never had a sister but the girls she grew up with in her tribe were like her sisters and she never would have treated any of them with such disdain, not even the ones that she did not get along with as well.

But it is not Felicity’s place to say anything here. Regardless of the friendship that ‘Tee’ and Sara have, she is still a servant and here in the Royal Caldera City – a region of the capital placed directly in the centre, in a crater, that houses the Fire Lord himself, his family and his closest nobility and elite (including the Queens) – that means being quiet and serving. Thankfully, she is posing as Sara’s servant and therefore is able to focus her attentions for the evening on her friend and on Oliver. Sara offered to share her service with Oliver when they arrived so that he can experience her “Superior serving skills.” (a comment that made the Lances all grimace in disgust both to Felicity’s amusement and anger).

Felicity was initially annoyed at Sara for making her behave as Oliver’s servant. She knows that it was done in an attempt by her friend to make her get closer to Oliver because she thinks it will magically make Oliver fall in love with her somehow but it only serves to remind Felicity of how little she deserves Oliver. He should be with somebody like Laurel. She may not be a bender but she is from Oliver’s world, Oliver’s nation and she is clearly a better match in every way. Or she will be once she learns to respect Oliver’s boundaries.

But she has grown less annoyed, serving Oliver has allowed for them to exchange meaningful glances, entire conversations have passed between them wordlessly as is their custom and she has also been able to angle herself between Laurel and Oliver several times. Laurel has been mad each time but it has been worth it for the gratefulness in Oliver’s eyes, thanking her for the reprieve, however brief. He has made a point to touch her several times too. Subtly, something that nobody will see (except Sara whose perceptive eyes do not move away from them whenever they are near) but just little touches of reassurance, sharing strength with her and apologising for the role that she is having to pretend to take whilst also thanking her for doing it, for being there for him.

Secretly, she thinks that the touches are as much for him as they are for her. Contact that he is initiating, that he has control of, so that he can feel a little more secure after Laurel presses herself against his side again. A way of reminding himself that she, his friend, is there and safe and her disguise is working, always the protector.

She is grounding him, helping him remember why they are there and that it will not last forever – because she cannot stay in the Fire Nation forever – as he is forced to listen to his family as they already try to plan his life for him, assuming what he wants. His mother and Dinah have been hinting heavily at rekindling the betrothal all night, Laurel glowing with pride whenever they exalt her virtues and remind him of their history and none of them noticing how much he clearly wants them to stop.

He is reminding himself that she is there for him, and asking her to stay and not leave. This is what Sara had mistaken for romantic attraction, Felicity is his talisman of calm. She is who he returns to every time he comes back from a mission, his representation of safety and home and peace. Her being there for him is what he needs to cope with everything happening.

Of course she is there for him. No matter how demeaning her current situation is, she would do anything for him. He is her teammate, her friend and the man who has wormed his way into her heart. Whatever he needs, she will help him with because she just wants to see him happy. And now, she wants to see the little boy that they have come to find happy too. The child is a part of Oliver, she loves him already.

For the umpteenth time, Oliver is pressing a gentle hand to the inside of her wrist under the protection of the tray that she is carrying, thanking her for removing a plate from before him, when Laurel huffs angrily and exclaims, “This? Already? Is this how you think it’s always going to be? Because it’s not!” Everybody looks at her and her twisted, fuming glaring at Oliver, perplexed over her outburst. “When we were younger I could look past all of the flirting and cheating because I knew you were still young and just needed to grow. But you’re grown now, Oliver and I will not stand for it anymore! You’re my fiancé, you will be my husband and I will not stand for your wandering eye anymore. If you want an easy life, I expect you to stop putting your hands all over the… the hired help and Sara’s sloppy seconds, no less, right now!”

Even though Laurel has interpreted literally everything wrongly and just insulted her, it is the first time that Felicity has found some degree of respect for her in her days since arriving in the capital. Up until now, she has not been impressed by the older Lance daughter, who has been rude to her from their first meeting and completely dismissive of Sara as well as offensive when it comes to her sexuality. As soon as it became clear that Laurel believe she and Sara are lovers and that she does not support Sara’s love life, she lost all chance of Felicity liking her.

But Felicity has to respect this. Laurel is under the impression that Oliver will be sticking around and marrying her and, if they were planning to stay, she would probably be right. She also thinks that Oliver somehow has not changed in the last five years which is ridiculous because even if he had been stranded on an island for all of that time, he would have changed significantly. But in Laurel’s mind, the boy she was to marry is back and sitting before her and his touches to Felicity are not those of friendship because she believes that they only just met, they are a man flirting with a woman who is attracted to him. And she is not willing to stand for him cheating on her.

So even though Oliver will not be staying, and he is not the kind of man who would cheat on anybody anymore, and he is just Felicity’s friend, and literally all of Laurel’s assumptions are incorrect, Felicity says nothing.

Oliver, on the other hand, is less willing to stay quiet and he has less reason to. He can talk without blowing his cover. “Don’t call her that!” he explodes, making Felicity wince because he is about two seconds from blowing everything for them if he is too obvious about their closeness. “You have no idea what you’re talking about you-” he stops short, finally spotting Felicity’s fearful widened eyes and Sara’s warning glare and realising that he is going too far and has some damage control to do.

Laurel is as wide-eyed as Felicity, taken aback by Oliver’s outburst and not knowing how to react. He only pauses for a moment longer before he backtracks, “You don’t know a thing about me anymore, Laurel. I’ve been gone for a long time and before that I was gone to war. You don’t know the man I’ve become and, based on the fact that it seems like Sara has been travelling for nearly as long, you probably don’t know her either. So maybe try to rethink your judgements about Sara’s relationship with this girl, rethink your prejudice about her role in Sara’s life and the world and rethink your assumptions about how I feel about people and what I want from my life.”

With that, he pushes his chair back a little too forcefully, sending it flying. Felicity has to dart out a hand to steady it before it topples over. Oliver is clearly planning on storming out, but it would seem that Laurel is not content to let him have the last word, “Maybe I wouldn’t make assumptions if you weren’t so obvious about it.” She hisses, “You’ve not taken your eyes off her all evening and I won’t stand for it! You’ve been looking at her like she’s your next meal, you’ve barely even spared me a glance and I am your _betrothed_! I may have let you get away with it before, Oliver, but at least you kept it subtle how much you were playing around behind my back. But now you’re a grown man and I won’t let you flirt with whomever you’d like right in front of me, I’m not going to sit by and let you knock up another one of your _whores_ with some filthy bastard who’ll try and claim _my_ children’s birth right-”

“Laurel!” Dinah interrupts furiously, nostrils flaring. Laurel is panting, calming down but her eyes widen once again with the realisation of what she has just said. A quick glance around the table confirms to Felicity everything that she needs to know. Moira is fuming with rage, boring holes into Laurel with her glare even as her eyes dart to Oliver hopefully as if she is still holding out for him to not realise what Laurel has so heavily implied, Thea looks like her wildest dreams have come true – entertainment and satisfaction and thrill play across her face – Lance looks displeased and tense, Sara’s eyes are glinting with the excitement of a hunt coming to its climax, their mission’s completion finally within grasp.

And Oliver… Oliver still looks murderous in his rage, his body angled protectively between Laurel and Felicity in a way that she knows only she and Sara will pick up on, but even in his anger he sees the opportunity before him and he knows that he has to take it and let the argument slide.

Pride fills Felicity as she watches him internally will away the fury and replace it with a mostly false look of surprise and confusion… “ _Another_?” he asks, making sure to infuse his voice with importance and demand and question.

“Oliv-” Moira tries to placate.

“ _No_ , Mom.” He stops her, “Laurel said _another_ and I _know_ it wasn’t a mistake. Look how worried she is. _What did she mean_?” he demands, “Do I… did I get somebody pregnant? Do I have a child?” he asks it with all of the breathy wonder and sorrow that Felicity knows that he had felt when he first held that letter in his hands. Adoration for the existence of his son mingling with painful regret at how much of the boy’s life he has missed out on. It is genuine, she knows, it is everything that he is still feeling, everything that is driving this mission.

“No.” Laurel says, voice clear for the first time, “I swear, Oliver, I just misspo-”

“ _Don’t. Lie. To. Me._ ” He grinds out, dangerous, deadly, “Thea?” he turns on the one family member he has who has not yet tried to lie to him, “Please, tell me?” his voice is soft for his sister and her alone.

“You have a son.” She tells him, a wobble in her voice as she speaks the words that would change her brother’s entire world if he did not already know, that will still change it because he now knows officially, “His name is William and his mother just died. We found out about him when his birth records were read to find his next of kin – you were listed as the father.”

“Thea!” Moira snaps, turning her anger from Laurel and onto her daughter.

The flames burning in the bracketed torches swell violently, drawing everybody’s attention back onto the most powerful of the four firebenders in the room, and the most angry. “Don’t, Mother.” He warns, “Don’t lie, don’t try to keep this from me for any longer.”

“He was going to find out, anyway.” Thea says, “It’s been all over the news.”

“Uncorroborated stories.” Moira tries to deflect.

“Except that it has been corroborated.” Thea corrects, “By us. You yourself confirmed that William is Oliver’s and then you cast him aside and sent him to a group home instead of admitting that Oliver wasn’t the perfect Fire Nation soldier boy that you’ve been painting him as. You couldn’t even admit that our family is less than perfect in order to give your grandson a safe home.”

It is clear that Thea has been upset about this for a while, that she did not agree with her mother’s decision. She then turns her pleading gaze on Oliver, “I swear, Oliver, I only didn’t tell you because she threatened to have him sent away so far that we’d never see him again! I’ve been visiting him in the home every week and I planned to take my inheritance once I’m of age and to get far away from here with him.” Oliver says nothing, still glaring at his mother, but he nods his understanding and respect for his sister.

“Take me to him?” is all that he says, eyes only for his sister. She stands without hesitation, following him out of the door, away from the rest of them.

Towards William.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up next week and hopefully I'll have replied to comments by then. Stay safe.


	3. Book Three: Air

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> William.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol I almost forgot this and then it was insomnia hours and I suddenly realised. Had to run downstairs for my laptop but it's here now...
> 
> Thank you the well wishes, they're appreciated. Things will get better soon, I'm already feeling less stressed as it'll be my winter holidays by the end of tomorrow (today for me :|).
> 
> ...enjoy?
> 
> Trigger warning: in this chapter, William mentions physical punishments he has received from his guardians for what they have deemed as ‘bad behaviour’. Past child abuse.

**Book Three: Air**

Watching him leave sends Felicity into a spiral of panic. He does not once turn back to look at any of the rest of them, letting his disgust be well known to the room, and if it were not for the reassuring brush of his fingers against the palm of her hand as he stalks past her, she would lose it. As it is, she just stands there, still completely lost and holding his dinner plate, blinking at his retreating figure until the door slams shut behind him.

It is Sara who rescues her, “Well,” she starts, sounding equal parts amused and done with everybody left, “As much fun as the return to all of this Lance-Queen family drama was, I’m going to head off.”

“What a shock.” Laurel turns her frustrations on her younger sister, “Bailing when things get tough, just like always. You going to run after Ollie again?”

Sara takes a deep calming breath, “I think he could do with a friend, don’t you?” and as she stands to leave, she adds, “Besides, it wouldn’t be any of your business even if I was. He’s not yours, Laurel. He doesn’t belong to you. And if you didn’t get the hint tonight that he doesn’t intend to be again, there’s really nothing I can do for you. Come on, Fe-… Tee.”

Felicity wastes no time in rushing after her friend, not even remembering to put down the plate in her hands as she goes. “Well, that was a shipwreck.” Sara huffs once they are out of earshot in the dining room. Not that I expected it to be any different.”

“Is it always like that?”

“No, usually there’s more repression. What you saw tonight was over a decade of bottled up feelings and locked away secrets bursting out all at once. It’s been a long time coming.”

“Miss Sara,” a voice interrupts, making both of their heads snap to the source, not having realised that somebody is nearby.

A short, kind looking woman is stood at the entrance to the mansion, a kind smile on her face. To Felicity’s surprise, Sara’s lips split into a genuine grin, “Raisa!” she exclaims, rushing forwards, “I’ve missed you.”

“And I you. Did Miss Thea tell Mister Oliver about his son?” she gets straight to the point.

“She did, we’re just following them to lend some support.” Felicity cannot get over how honest Sara is being, but she knows the name Raisa. She has heard both Sara and Oliver talk about her so fondly over the years, this is the woman who raised Oliver and Thea and Felicity already loves her for that.

  
“You.” Raisa focuses her attention on Felicity, her eyes sharp and all-seeing, “Mister Oliver cares deeply about you.” She states, not a shadow of doubt in her words, “I do not know how it is that you know him – nor shall I ask, you have your right to keep your secrets – but I can tell that he is lucky to have you. He will need you by his side in the weeks to come.”

“How did you-?”

“Raisa has always known things.” Sara says, “And she always knows what the _right thing to do_ is.” The weight that she puts on the words lets Felicity know all that she needs to, Raisa is trustworthy. She is allied to their cause. “Ollie always says that she’d have been the Avatar if she and Roku had swapped birthdays.”

It makes Felicity smile, the fantasies of the boy Oliver had once been filling her with warmth, “I’m sure you’d have made a wonderful Avatar.” She can imagine a little Oliver imagining a better world in which his pseudo-mother and hero had been an all-powerful spiritual leader, ready to make his world a better place.

“Oh, no.” Raisa denies, “I was not built to be an Avatar. Besides, if I’d been Avatar, who’d have been around to put Roku in line?” she winks, making Felicity gape. Did she just… did she imply that she _knew_ Roku? But… surely she cannot be old enough for that. Raisa is one of those people with a timeless face, she could be any age from her late thirties to her fifties but there is no way that she can be over _sixty_ , can she? Roku died over thirty years ago as an old man, there is no way that the two of them could have been friends, right?

“Don’t ask.” Sara murmurs, clearly seeing Felicity try to work it out.

“Bu-”

“My child,” Raisa smiles, taking Felicity’s hands in her own, “All that you need to know will soon become clear. But there is no time for questions and explanations right now, you must get going. Oliver needs you.” Her eyes glaze a little, mind somewhere else and Felicity gets a feeling like something is happening around her, her hairs raising. But Raisa has a good point. “Here,” the older woman says, “Cookies. For Mister William.” Sara opens her mouth but Raisa gives her no time to speak, “And yes, Sara, there are some for you too. Share with Miss Felicity, please.” Sara grins, “Now here is a map, go.” She presses some parchment into Sara’s hands with a finality about her, clearly ending their interaction.

And there is no disobeying the woman when she orders them to go like that. Especially not when Oliver clearly needs them so much. So they go.

As they rush after Oliver, something dawns on Felicity, “She knew my real name.” she says in a trance. Sara just smirks knowingly.

*************************

Oliver is quite literally smoking as he storms alongside Thea to wherever his mother has discarded his son like yesterday’s waste. Everything has him on edge. Everything. His mother, Laurel, the Lances, the way that his son has been cast aside by his own family, the fact that he has to hide his feelings for Felicity, the fact that he had to leave her behind like that. He just hopes that she knows none of it was directed at her. None of it was her fault. He hopes that she knows he needs her, that he wants nothing more than to have her safe at his side as he goes to meet his son for the first time. He needs her strength, he does not know if he has enough to handle this on his own.

His son.

What is William like? Is he a firebender like him or did he take after Samantha in that respect? What does he look like, are any of Oliver’s features represented in his son’s profile? What likes and dislikes does the boy have?

Does William resent him for never being there, for leaving him to the mercies of his family?

“Ollie?” Thea looks up and, for the first time since his return, Oliver actually feels like she is seeing _him_ instead of the boy who left to join a war all those years before, who died on that boat and was reborn with his new mission and a decided lack of patriotism. He knows that all of the ways that he has changed must be jarring for his little sister. He knows because he is experiencing the same thing, she is not the little girl who he left behind. The innocent child who used to run around after him has been forged into a strong, unyielding young woman by the trials of her life. Oliver just feels guilty for allowing his death to be one of those trials. He did not give enough thought to his baby sister when he decided to turn on his nation and fight for the oppressed in the Earth Kingdom.

“Thea?” he responds, trying not to let his emotions bleed into her name, she is not their mother after all.

“You’re really not the same, are you?” she asks, making him focus on her, looking down at her sweet face. He will always still see that tiny baby he held in his arms when he looks at her.

“No.” he finds himself honestly answering, “No I’m not. But you’re not either. The last five years… they’ve changed us all.”

“Not Laurel.” Thea scoffs, “She’s acting like everything will just go back to how it was before. As if you didn’t sabotage your relationship by sleeping with her sister and then run off to war to get away from having to marry her.”

“Thea.” He scolds lightly, not denying her words.

“Well it’s true.” She grins.

Sighing, Oliver keeps walking as he tries to explain, “It’s not entirely her fault. Her entire life, she was trained to be the perfect wife for me. She and her family burnt a lot of bridges to keep faithful to me and to secure our betrothal. I’m not saying it’s right, or that she shouldn’t have grown away from the idea she has of me by now, but it’s understandable that she hasn’t.

“Her childhood was all designed to prepare her for a life with me. And mine was designed to push me in her direction too, I just wasn’t quite as attached to the idea. I wasn’t ready for the responsibility of marriage or even commitment but I also didn’t know how to be anything other than Laurel’s intended so I screwed around and I made everything awful and that’s on me. She didn’t used to be so bitter or jealous, I made her like that with my actions and I’ll always regret that. But she’s never been able to let go of the idea of us, I guess. Not even in my death.” Thea flinches at the word, making Oliver wince regretfully.

“She’s a grown woman. All of us had messed up childhoods at the hands of our manipulative parents.” She spits it with such vitriol, Oliver had not been expecting it from his baby sister. He wonders what her life has been like since he left, what has made her this jaded woman before him. It cannot have been easy. Robert was never the most present parent or the best man – he was far too close to Sozin to be a good man – but he doted on Thea, he was her safe harbour.

His death was what woke Oliver up enough to make him realise he needed to get out of the toxic cycle he was in with Laurel before they ended up just like his parents. A combination of honouring his father and defying the expectations put upon him to take charge of his own life was what made Oliver go off to war to continue the work his father had begun in the name of Sozin. To fight for his nation and for Azulon’s new reign, no matter how little he got on with his slightly younger childhood playmate.

Thea was twelve years old and had a home with a doting father, an adoring older brother who had been most present of her three family members when it came to raising her, and a mother she never got along with too well but who focused most of her hovering on Oliver and let Thea’s tutors handle her. But then her father died, her brother ran off to war and within a year she would have received the news that he had died and she was the last remaining Queen heir.

He cannot imagine what it was like, living with their mother in mourning for him and having all of Moira Queen’s attentions forced upon her as a result. She must have been so much more intense, so much less emotionally available. And suddenly, the woman his sister has become makes a lot more sense to him.

“We did, and I’m not saying it’s an excuse for the way that Laurel behaved today but we need to understand that she’s always held on to things with everything that she has and she’s always been a little too good at deluding herself into ignoring the ugly things in the world and focusing on the perfect ones.” It feels wrong to say these things about the girl he grew up loving, even if he now knows he only ever loved her enough to be her friend, not her husband.

But it is all true, and Thea was so young back then that he feels he owes her an explanation so that she can understand, so that she won’t judge Laurel too harshly for things that he himself had a hand in causing. “So the news of my return was probably a lifeline to her after still not finding a new match for the five years I was gone, and, knowing her, she’s been obsessing over everything that she imagined our relationship could be and ignoring what it actually was. Sara and Felicity… uh, Tee, being there just set her off. Give her time, I’m sure she’ll remember how much of a mess we were eventually.”

“Maybe.” Is all that Thea says, doubtful. “So… this _Felicity… uh, Tee_ , girl…?” she teases.

Eyes rolling, he says, “Don’t start with that.” He cannot help but grin back at her as he playfully pushes her, making her yelp. He sobers up, working his jaw as he tries to find the right words, “I’m sorry.” He lands upon, “That the big brother you remembered is not the one who came home. And I’m sorry that I’ve been so distracted. But… if it’s okay with you, I’d like to try and get to know you. Again. I want to know everything, and I’m willing to let you get to know me too.”

Thea gulps back something, eyes shining with unshed tears, “I’d like that.” She says, “Yes please.” He smiles.

*************************

They continue walking and Oliver notices that they are getting further and further from Caldera and further into the dark parts, beyond even the First Lord’s Harbour, where most people from the capital live and into the outskirts where criminals rule more than the Fire Lord. “Where did Mom send him?” he asks, voice tight and angry.

“As far away as she could.” Thea replies, equally angry and Oliver knows that it is not good news.

Trying to shake away the horrible thoughts of the life that his son may now be leading, Oliver asks, “What’s he like?”

It softens his sister, making his own heart feel something akin to peace, “He’s… incredible.”

“Yeah?” he asks hopefully.

“Yeah. He’s smart.” She grins, “Way smarter than you.” It earns her another playful shove, “And he’s a little nerd. Honestly if he didn’t look exactly like you I’d doubt that he was even yours.”

“He looks like me?” it makes his heart leap.

“Yeah, like a mini-Ollie. With darker hair, he got that from his mother.”

“How is he doing with all of… _that_?” he asks, hurting for his child.

Thea bites her lip, “He’s doing as well as could be expected. She did a great job of raising him up until now, he misses her a lot.”

“I can imagine.” Thea gives him a look when he says it, empathising both with his own and his son’s plight. She had not been all that much older than William when their father died. Twice his age, but at that age it is only a matter of years.

Oliver had never been as outwardly effected by it, though his running off to war is more than enough evidence that he had been. And since going to war… since _leaving_ the war and turning against his army, he has lost so many. He understands loss intimately now, he has caused death at his own hands. Thea does not know that, she cannot understand just how much he knows of loss.

Sure, they lost their father. And it was devastating and it changed everything for their family. But they still had each other, and Robert had never been around much anyway. And now Oliver understands that their father was an integral part of the very evil that he has dedicated the remainder of his life to fighting.

Their mother is just as complicit, manipulating the strings of politics from the shadows to further his father’s, and subsequently his family’s, standing in the Fire Nation and the eyes of the young Fire Lord. He knows that her machinations have led to more than one devastating event at the hands of his home country to the people of the world, many such things that have happened at his father’s command. He knows that his country is even more of a threat to the people of the world – even those who are still unaware of the threat – than ever before and that his family is a part of that.

Not to mention the evident increase to their already unimaginable wealth that they have experienced in his absence. His family is closer to the Fire Lord than ever before, even in the days when a young Oliver reluctantly played with the crowned prince at his parent’s request. A thought strikes Oliver, pieces of a puzzle finally matching up and he feels himself beginning to smoke again. Azulon is married now but Oliver gets the sick sense that his mother’s actions, getting closer to the Fire Lord even after both Robert and Sozin have died, pushing them to improve their standing, cracking down on Thea’s education… he gets a sick sense that she has been trying to prepare Thea to be some sort of concubine for the Fire Lord. A man eight years her senior.

It is just a hunch, but it makes all too much sense in his mind. Even her allowing Thea’s training in firebending to continue. Azulon likes strong women who are forced to bend knee to him, a pure firebender bloodline. Thea fits that perfectly. Oliver does not know if she is aware, he does not know if she is on board with it, but he knows that he will not allow it to happen if she does not want it to.

Azulon came into power in the year that Oliver left for the war, he was just twenty years old, Oliver was twenty-two. Sozin was an old man by the time that he passed, he had been an old man for the entirety of Azulon’s life and Oliver knows that there was no love lost between them. Even when they had been children, Sozin had been more concerned with teaching his son of their superiority, of why the world needed them to take over and spread their prosperity than of being a good father. By the time that they were teenagers, Oliver could already see how eager Azulon was for his father to die and the crown to go to him. That was around the time that the two of them stopped spending time together, and Oliver’s parents lost the ability to force him to as Azulon made his own friends.

Robert had not been much different to Sozin, but less cruel. He at least cared for Oliver and Thea, even if he cared about other things and often prioritised them. Oliver does not know if he would have been in agreement with pushing Thea on Azulon. He doubts that Sozin ever truly cared for his son. There was only one person Sozin cared for and that was his late wife – the first one, not the one several decades his junior, he had cared for her even less than he cared for their only son and heir, Azulon. He doubts that Azulon truly cares for his wife beyond her purpose to the Fire Nation. He fears for the future.

The future that now worries him more than ever. It has always worried him, ever since he started to see past the lies of his education and the propaganda of his country. He supposes that he has always been in a good position to be able to see through it, since he has always been so close to the royal family. So much of the propaganda preaches about how perfect and wonderful and correct the Fire Lord always is, but Oliver knows them and he knows how untrue that is. That had been his first clue.

The first clue had made him angry, lost, confused. It made him question everything, because if the Fire Nation would lie to their people like that, what else would they lie about? He had not been afraid, at the time he had felt a disconnect from his family for their complicity. He had only truly started to fear for the future when he uncovered more, when he learnt just how wrong things that he had believed for his entire life actually were. Because if he believed them, even from his positon, that meant pretty much everybody would and the next generation of the Fire Nation would have no way of knowing the truth because it would be all that they knew.

The next generation that includes his sister. His brilliant baby sister. The first time that he feared his country, it was for her and what they were doing to her. What her future would look like. But he had to have faith that it would be enough to fight them, to stop them and to free the world – including the Fire Nation – from the Fire Lord’s oppression. He had to believe that would be enough to save her and her future.

  
But after a year of fighting for them and learning the horrors of war and the horrors that he was bringing upon the people of the world, another year of fighting against them from within and three years of fighting them as an enemy with his steadily growing team, Oliver knows that his fight will not be done in time to keep Thea safe. William, learning of his existence, it had been the push that he needed to return and save his loved ones before he re-joins the fight. He cannot sit back and do nothing as his son grows up, he could not watch his son be indoctrinated, he cannot allow his son to become some faceless soldier in the army, he cannot allow himself to face a future where he may end up on the opposite side of a battlefield to his own child.

William deserves better than that, William deserves a family and if he cannot have his mother and Oliver’s family will not take him in, well that is fine. Oliver will find a way to raise his son and keep him safe from their own people.

“Ollie!” a voice disturbs him from his musings, making him turn and distracting Thea sufficiently enough that he knows he will not have to explain anything more. He sees two female figures approaching, Sara and Felicity.

“Oliver!” Felicity smiles, running straight at him and throwing herself into his arms without a thought. Oliver thinks nothing of catching her, holding her close. For as fragile as their relationship is after that unfinished moment by the lake, they will always be friends and their friendship will come first. A week is far too long to be apart, it feels good to have her in his arms again. Even if having her in his arms comes with an overwhelming desire to kiss her and profess his love right then and there, regardless of what an inappropriate moment it is for that.

Fortunately for him, the romantic moment he has always dreamt of for that declaration is preserved by the sound of his sister clearing her throat, “Well, I guess Laurel was wrong about one more thing. You weren’t eyeing her up because you wanted to seduce her – you were doing it because you already have and were thinking about what you’d do to her next time you have her alone.” She smirks, looking between he and Felicity (who is still wrapped in his arms) with a smug grin.

“Wha- n-no!” Felicity protests, pulling back from Oliver as quickly as she can, “T-that’s no-”

“Sure.” Thea says smugly.

“Thea.” Oliver snaps, “Stop teasing her.”

“Oh, come on Ollie.” She rolls her eyes, “You just don’t like it when I’m right. Admit it – you had her in your bed and you were thinking of all the dirty things you could do to her the next time you get her alone.” She grimaces, “Though… I could do without the details. Just tell me I’m right and we’ll move on and with any luck I’ll never have to think about you in bed again.”

“Th-that’s not… I-I’m not… T-Thea, no,” he splutters, unable to find the words to lie and tell her that he was not thinking about what he’d do if he got a moment alone with Felicity. He changes tactics, “How do you even know about that sort of thing anyway?” he asks, trying to turn it back on her.

Her smirk only widens, her eyes rolling again, “Ollie, I’m _your_ sister,” she says, “I’ve known about that stuff since I was seven and I caught you and the older Lee sister in the servant’s corridor at Tommy’s seventeenth birthday party.

Oliver coughs, his cheeks flaming and he cannot meet anybody’s eyes. Not Thea’s, not Sara’s (he just knows she is loving this) and certainly not Felicity’s. He had not wanted her to find out just how sordid his past was. Though he had not wanted Thea to know either and it seems that she has since they were children. “Thea… that’s not… I didn’t know that you’d… uh…”

Thea snorts, “I can’t believe you thought I’d not know anything.” She laughs, “Now stop avoiding and admit that I’m right.”

“It’s not… it’s not like that, Miss Queen.” Felicity interjects, obviously aware of the fact that Oliver has lost the ability to form articulate sentences, “I’m not Oliver’s new… conquest… or anything. I know he doesn’t see me like that, he’s… he’s free to be with whomever he wishes, it’s just not me.”

Oliver detects a note of sadness in Felicity’s voice, and a look at Thea confirms that she does too though she has at least enough decorum to not mention it. Sara’s expression of frustration and second-hand pain is enough to let him know that he and Felicity need to have a conversation very soon and he needs to make some things very clear.

“Felicity is my friend, Thea.” Oliver informs his sister, careful not to say ‘just’ in case Felicity takes it all too literally and gets the idea in her head that he has no plans to add at least one or two more definitions to their relationship.

“And how might that have happened, Ollie?” Thea asks suspiciously, and Oliver curses the fact that his sister is as smart as she is, wondering how he forgot just her perceptive she can be, “You’ve been back for a week. They’ve been back for less.”

“I know her from before.” He says, voice tight, “You forget, Sara and I were at war together. I’ve known Felicity for years.”

“Hmm.” Thea hums, offering nothing else. Oliver gets the impression that she does not believe him, but he takes advantage of the fact that she does not press. He has some other things on his mind, and the nerves are bubbling up again.

“What are the two of you doing here, anyway?” he asks, trying not to sound rude or blunt but his mind is in the distance, with his son.

“Didn’t want to stick around to get the brunt of my sister’s temper tantrum after _that_.” Sara replies, “And we thought you could use some friendly faces for support.” Oliver says nothing, but he smiles at his friends, one of whom is the woman he loves, letting them know that he is grateful. That he appreciates their support. “Plus Raisa sent us with cookies.” Sara adds, holding something up and scooping a cookie out of it, shoving it into her mouth before she thinks better of it and offers one to Felicity.

“They’re for William.” Felicity declines.

Thea eyes up the number of cookies and swipes one up herself, “There will be plenty for William,” she announces, “Trust me, you’re going to want to try Raisa’s cookies.”

Hesitant, Felicity takes two from the package, biting into one herself. She looks delighted, and quickly begins to munch on the rest even as she silently offers the second one to Oliver. Oliver takes it, because he will always take whatever Felicity offers him.

*************************

“We’re here.” Thea announces, stopping before a rundown building in one of the worst parts of the city that Oliver knows of. This is no place for a child to be raised. Another wave of fury at his mother flows through him. He always knew that image was the most important thing to her, but he never would have thought her capable of letting his son – her own blood – languish in a place like this. “I know, Ollie.” Thea says, her small hand on his arm and anger glinting in he own eyes as she looks upon the place her nephew is living in, “But you’re here now.”

“Do you want us to go with you?” Felicity asks quietly and Oliver thinks on it. He wants to say yes, he wants to beg her to be by his side and to never leave him. But then he thinks about his son instead of himself, and of how hard this is going to be for the boy anyway even without another stranger coming in to meet him, let alone two others and with the aunt he barely knows there to overwhelm him too. Because there is no way that he can explain just Felicity going with him to Thea, she would expect to be the one, she would certainly expect him to choose Sara over Felicity. No, for his son, for his cover, for himself, he needs to do this alone.

“Yes.” He says truthfully, “But I need to do this by myself. William and I deserve some time together.” Felicity nods understandingly, and then hugs the arm that her hand is laying on and presses a surreptitious kiss to his bicep, quick and discrete enough that Thea does not see. Sara claps him on the back, offering her own form of support and Thea gives him a big hug, kissing his cheek.

“I’ll come into the entrance with you to make sure they let you in.” she says, “But I’ll let you meet him in peace. Call us when you want us?” she asks. He just nods, letting her lead him in.

“Don’t let Sara eat all of the cookies.” He calls out over his shoulder, last minute and he hears Felicity snatching the cookies away from the woman in question. He has no time to enjoy their antics though.

He is about to meet his son.

The place does not look any better on the inside than it did on the outside. It is functional, that is the most that Oliver can say for it. There are no children around, but Thea explains to him that it is dinner time and the children will be eating. Oliver feels bad for tearing his son from his meal, but he reasons to himself that if the food is anything like the accommodation, his son would do better to get away from it and wait a little longer. Oliver can get him something better. Raisa’s cookies will be a good start. He gulps as Thea approaches the desk, not ready but also so, so ready to meet his little boy.

  
Thea and the woman at the desk exchange a few words, the stranger’s eyes widening in a way that would be comical if not for the nerves dancing in his stomach when she realises who he is. Thea stops talking, and the woman looks at him expectantly and he honestly did not listen to a word that either of them said, he was so focused on his thoughts, but he says, “I would like to meet my son.” And she vanishes down a hallway, so he figures that he said the right thing.

Thea smiles at him and pats his arm reassuringly as she leaves, pointing him towards a small seating area where a few toys are stacked away neatly, and he goes over there to wait. He does not sit down there though, he is too nervous. Instead, he paces.

He is on the return pace when he hears a throat clearing from behind him, and he whirls around to see the desk lady standing at the edge of the seats, a tiny little boy by her side, looking nervously and suspiciously at Oliver. His heart stops. That is his boy. That is his son.

Thea was right. He really does look the spitting image of Oliver, like the universe had reached back to the years just after Sozin’s comet and plucked a young Oliver from the gardens of the royal palace, dragging him into the present.

“William.” He gasps, unable to stop the name from escaping from his lips. He is so in awe. The child is perfect. He has not even said a word, he has not even moved, but Oliver loves him so much already. His entire life is once again restructuring to place William at the centre of his world, right between Felicity and Thea.

“Who’re you?” William asks, nose scrunching, totally unaware of the dagger he is sending through his father’s heart.

“I- I’m your… My name is Oliver Queen.” He finds himself saying, for some reason unable to form the words ‘I’m your father’. But it is enough, William obviously knows the name and he takes a physical step back, surprise across his face.

“B- but… But you’re dead.” William says, “Aunt Thea said you were dead. You’re lying! Oliver Queen is dead, my father is dead!”

“I’m not,” Oliver sinks to his knees helplessly, putting himself on eye level with his son, “I swear to you, William, I am Oliver Queen. I am your father.” This time the words come easier, something about hearing them from his son’s mouth making them flow.

William looks up to the worker whose name Oliver still does not know, and she nods, “Go on, boy.” She says, “He’s your father, show him some respect.” Oliver’s jaw clenches at her tone, at her words. He does not expect respect from his son, he has to earn that. Yet another thing that he hates about the ‘modern’ teachings of his country.

To his surprise and hope, William’s jaw clenches too, though he does reluctantly straighten his posture, compose himself and walk forwards to say, “Hello, sir. My name is William Clayton, it is an honour to meet you.” It is forced, not blindly obedient, Oliver has hope.

“None of that.” Oliver establishes immediately, making the woman’s eyes flash from behind. “I’m not your master, or your commanding officer. I’m your father, though I have not done much to earn that title yet. You give me your respect when I have earned it from you, and you can call me Oliver or father or dad… whatever you want, whenever you’re comfortable, but you don’t have to address me as a superior or use any of this ‘sir’ nonsense, understand?”

It relieves him to see a small spark of respect in his son’s eye at his words, “Yes, Oliver.” The boy says carefully. And it hurts Oliver to hear his child address him by his first name, but he will not force the boy to do anything that makes him feel uncomfortable and he had come here already expecting that William would not see him as a father right away.

“May we have some privacy?” Oliver asks the desk lady tersely, knowing that his son will not fully relax until she is gone, and that he cannot speak freely as long as she is present. She looks like she wants to protest, but he puffs out his chest and adopts his haughtiest expression, reminding her of who exactly he is, and she goes running back.

“She’ll still be listening in, you know.” William says when Oliver turns back to him, “They’re always listening in. It’s so that they can punish us if we say anything wrong.”

“We’ll just have to talk quietly, then.” Oliver says, “And, besides, they won’t punish you for a thing if I don’t let them anymore. They have no right.”

William cocks his head, “Do you plan to let them?”

“Never.” Oliver vows.

“How will you stop them?” William asks, genuinely curious.

“That depends on how today goes.” Oliver replies, and that is all that he says on the matter.

A beat passes, and then he asks, “Have they punished you before?” William hesitates, not wanting to tell Oliver the truth, “You can tell me, I won’t be angry with you. And if you don’t tell me I won’t be angry either, but I will ask them.”

“Yes.” William confesses, but offers no more.

“How often?”

“Regularly.”

“And for what reasons?” William inhales, looking genuinely terrified, “I told you,” Oliver says, trying to soften his voice even though his fury is rising, “I won’t be mad at you.”

“I… I question things that they don’t want me to question.” William says, not meeting Oliver’s eyes, shrinking as far back as he can without actually moving backwards. Oliver can tell that the boy wants to run as far as he can, but he has been taught not to, probably with violence and suddenly the importance of making himself as unthreatening as possible is greater than the fiery anger rising within him, and he manages to look as encouraging enough to get the child to continue.

“Once I asked why, if the Fire Lord was so perfect and our nation so great, they would leave children to grow up in a place like this where we get hurt. Once I asked why the world would want us to invade, and if they wanted our prosperity, wouldn’t they just let us? Once I said that peoples’ choices and rights should be taken into account and if the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe don’t want us to rule them enough to engage in a war over it, then we should let them be. Once I stole extra food from the kitchen when they were starving Kuzon as a punishment for getting the wrong answer in a test. Other things too, but those were the ones they hated the most.” Oliver has never been prouder than he is in that moment, nor has he been more infuriated.

He smiles softly, privately to himself, but then grows serious again, “Thank you for your honesty, William. I just need to know one more thing, how did they punish you?”

William shakes, “Beatings, canings, food deprivation… _burning_.” Oliver’s hands clench, his anger escaping enough to make the candles briefly flare in the corners of the room, to make William flinch back, but then he controls himself.

“Thank you.” He repeats, “That’s very useful for me to know.”

He does not miss the fear in William’s eyes at that, but he is also given no time to assure the child that he is safe now before he so bravely says, “May I ask some questions now?”

“Of course.” Oliver says, “Would you like to sit?” William nods and seats himself opposite Oliver, tense but determined, “You can ask me whatever you want, you have a right to know.”

“If you’ve been alive this whole time… does that mean it was Aunt Thea who lied and Lady Queen – your mother… m-my grandmother – who told the truth?”

“What did she tell you?”

“She said you never wanted me anyway and I wasn’t good enough to be part of your family because I’m the son of a… she called my mom a filthy commoner and said I was illegitimate and therefore didn’t deserve to know you or Aunt Thea or her and then she sent me here and said this was where stupid boys like me deserve to be.”

Oliver’s nostrils flare angrily, “No.” he growls, regretting it when William flinches backwards, “My mother doesn’t speak for me. She’s the one who lied, she’s the one in the, wrong. Your aunt… she told you the truth as she knew it. She knows better now.”

“What is the truth then?” William demands.

“The truth is that I want you, and I love you. More than anything. I barely know you, you’ve only been a part of my life for a few weeks, but I already love you more than I imagined was possible and the only way that I can see that changing is if I grow to somehow love you more as time passes.” He takes a deep breath before continuing, trying to stay brave even in the face of his son’s sceptical expression, “You’re my son, and I hope that you will give me the chance to be the father that you deserve. The truth is that your grandmother is an elitist and she cares more about the way that the world views her than about the things that really matter.”

“What do you mean by that?” William asks.

“I mean… look, I don’t want to turn you against your grandmother but I honestly don’t plan on either of us spending all that much time with her so I’ll just be honest. From what I understand, she knew about you as soon as Samantha – your mother – discovered she was pregnant but she – my mother – decided without consulting me that I was unfit to be a father and that a child born out of wedlock to a woman I was not betrothed to would only harm the family’s image and standing.” Oliver has to pause to control the anger that he can feel flaring again at the crushed expression on his son’s face before he continues, “I cannot stress this enough, William, I don’t agree with a word of this. I don’t care what the circumstances of your birth are, you’re my child and that’s the only thing that matters to me. But not to mother.

“Around the time that you were born, my own father died and I decided to join the army to honour him. I won’t go into the details just yet but, after two years at war, I was presumed dead when my command ship exploded with me on it. As you can tell, I did not die, but for the last three years everybody has assumed that I did.” Oliver is careful to choose the right words. He does not want to lie to William, but he also does not want any prying ears to pick anything up that could compromise him, Felicity, Sara or anybody else. He does not want to put William at risk more than he already is.

“A few weeks ago, I was found on an island and brought back here. As it turns out, my mother and Thea knew I had a son all along thanks to the events following her passing, but my mother made the same choice about you that she did when you were born and she instructed Thea not to tell me.”

“You didn’t know I existed?” William asks, quiet, and Oliver shakes his head, “And Aunt Thea didn’t tell you?”

Oliver sighs, “Not initially, no. You have to understand, William, Moira Queen is a powerful woman and she has control over almost every aspect of Thea’s life. Or, at least, she did before my return. Thea has been living under our mother’s thumb alone for the last three years. To her, Mother’s word is law because it might as well be. I’m fairly sure my mother has had a hand in the creation of at least a couple of laws.” He mutters that last part more to himself than anything, “But the point is,” he continues, “Thea doesn’t have much power at home, so she obeyed our mother. She was also concerned about overwhelming me after my years away. But, well, all that you need to know is things came to a boil tonight and everything came out. About you. And Thea brought me here straight away.”

“You came to me straight away?” William repeats, his emotions unreadable.

“As soon as I could.” Oliver confirms. And then, all of a sudden, his arms are filled with his little boy, the child having thrown himself at his father, hugging him desperately as if it has been a long time since he was last touched in a positive way. Oliver is aware of the tears that slip down his cheeks as he holds his child for the first time, his own grip equally desperate but for a whole different set of reasons, “I love you so much, William, you have no idea. I am so sorry for everything you have been through, but I’m going to do everything I can to make your life a good one from now on.”

William pulls back just enough to look up at Oliver, “You’re going to stay in my life?” he asks, amazed, “You’re going to keep visiting me like Aunt Thea?”

Oliver frowns, “Well, actually,” he starts.

William’s entire demeanour shifts, “You’re not, are you?” he tries to pull away but Oliver refuses to let him, “You’re just going to leave me here, like everybody else does. Even Aunt Thea always leaves eventually, you-”

“No, no, William,” Oliver pulls the distraught child close, cradling him in his arms until the fight leaves him, “I’m not going to leave you, I swear. Not ever, if you don’t want. That’s what I was trying to say. You know that your Aunt Thea only ever left because she’s legally still a child herself and couldn’t do anything about our mother’s decision, right?” he does not wait for an answer, “She was planning on taking you in the second that she turns eighteen if she can. But, William, I’m not Thea. I’m already an adult, I’ve been an adult for your entire life, and I am also your father, not your aunt. So what I meant – what I was going to ask – is whether you would like to come home with me?”

William freezes, his head slowly turning up to look at Oliver again, “You… you want me to come back to your home?” he asks, frowning, “Like I come and visit you instead of you coming to visit me?”

“No, son.” Oliver smiles, “I mean like you pack up your things and come home with me and never come back here again. Unless you want to come and visit somebody else or something.” The boy’s mouth drops open, his eyes wide. He says nothing, too shocked, “William?” Oliver asks nervously, “William, I’m sorry if I overwhelmed you and put too much on you too fast. This isn’t a now or never sort of thing, the offer is open. You can stay here for as long as you want, you can think about it for as long as you want but… you always have a home with me, William. I would like to be your father properly, to earn your love and respect and the right to be your dad.”

A sudden sniffle escapes William and Oliver is on the verge of panicking again when his son rises up and throws himself at Oliver once again, “Yes!” he cries, “Yes, please. Please take me away and to your home, I want to have a dad, I’ve never had a dad before. Please, thank you, I want to, yes.” He keeps babbling, practically begging Oliver to take him away.

“Yes?” Oliver checks.

“Yes. Can we go now?” William asks.

“Yes.” Oliver grins, “We can go as soon as you’re ready!”

“Where do you live?”

The grin drops from Oliver’s face, “Well, currently I’m living with my mother,” William also loses his grin, “But I plan to fix that soon enough and I do not currently have to work so I’ll be there with you all day and I won’t let her do anything. And then it’ll just be the two of us. And hopefully Aunt Thea, and a few of my friends if that is okay with you?”

“She won’t be there for long?”

“No.”

“And you won’t let her send me away again?”

“Never.”

“Can I meet your friends?”

Oliver relaxes, “Of course, two of them are actually here, and Aunt Thea. Would you like to see them now?”

“I would like that.” William gives a tentative smile too.

“Okay, well, how does this sound? You run to your room and gather together anything that you want to take with you and say goodbye to your friends, and I’ll go and get Aunt Thea and my friends and I’ll sign whatever I need to so that I can take you home and then you can meet them.”

“I don’t have any friends here, they don’t like new boys and I’m still new. Plus they all think I’m a liar because Mommy said you’re my daddy and nobody believed her except me because I know Mommy always told the truth. But okay.” William jumps from Oliver and runs down the hallway to wherever his room is, leaving Oliver aching at the thought of how lonely his son must have been since his mother’s passing.

But he is so proud. His son had no friends, he has been bullied for the parentage that he had no control over, and yet he still once sacrificed himself for a starving boy, he is still so strong. The desk lady (Oliver should really learn her name) returns the second that William vanishes, confirming what the child had said about them listening in always, and Oliver just stands strong, “I’m taking my son with me.” He announces.

“But, sir!” She protests, like she had no idea this was coming, “We can’t just – your mother signed away the rights for him and there’s a procedure and-”

“My name is Oliver Queen, I am the son of the late Lord Robert Queen, who was one of Fire Lord Sozin’s closest advisors and generals. I am a decorated admiral, the heir and inheritor of my father’s estate, and I have known Fire Lord Azulon since he was in diapers. When I say I am taking my son with me, I mean it. Do you dare to question that?” his voice is a growl and, for good measure, he flexes threateningly, allowing the fire around him to dance, the fire within him to glow from his hands.

Desk lady cowers.

Oliver would feel guilty, but she has been complicit to the attempted brainwashing of his son, to causing his son pain. He has no sympathy for that. And he will do whatever it takes to get his little boy away from her. Even if it means resorting to violence, it is just easier to get it done without. Oliver moves into the main entrance, standing before the desk expectantly and, making himself look as bored as possible, he angles himself so that he is visible from the window, and beckons for the three women outside to join him,

The orphanage worker practically throws herself behind the desk, rifling through a box of scrolls for the right one. She opens it, and Oliver can see that it is all about William. He plans to take that. His attention is on her as the door opens, but he does not bother looking around. Almost as if they have practiced it, Thea and Sara take position, flanking him, and Felicity moves to stand right next to him, sporting a determined look.

The woman fumbles around with some documents, asking Oliver to sign. He is not so stupid to sign something without reading it, but he also knows that Felicity will be able to spot any legal trickery better than him so, without discussing it, she is the one two takes the offered sheets and scans them through. They are all standing, waiting for Felicity to finish reading, when they hear the pounding of little feet.

“Oliver!” William shouts, rounding the corner happily, a bag thrown over his shoulder and looking depressingly lacking in items to fill it. As William comes into view, he spots the rest of them “Aunt Thea!” he squeals, throwing himself at his aunt instead of his father. She catches him, spinning him around and muttering to him, holding him close. “Aunt Thea, Oliver’s going to take me home, did you know?” William says happily.

“Do you know who else lives with my big brother, William?” Thea asks mischievously.

Instead of looking excited as Thea clearly intended, William looks sad and apprehensive, “Yes, I know. Your mom lives there, but it’s okay. Oliver swore he wouldn’t let her send me away again and he said we won’t have to live with her for long.” At that, Thea shoots Oliver a curious glance, but he does not react. Her expression makes it clear that he has some explaining to do once they are elsewhere.

“Well, yes.” Thea admits, “But do you know who else?”

“No, who?” William asks, genuinely curious.

Thea smiles, “I’ll give you a clue. She’s got short brown hair, she’s bafflingly short in stature considering how tall her entire family is, she’s got the best nephew in the world and she’s stood in this room right now.”

William gasps, “You?” he squeals happily, “I get to live with you _and_ Oliver?”

Thea is about to respond when the woman cuts in, “Mister Clayton,” she snaps, “Could you please stop with all of the screeching. You have been taught better than to make so much ridiculous noise, especially when you’re around your superiors.” It silences William immediately, that fear that Oliver hates so much creeping back into him. Oliver is furious.

He is furious enough that, even though part of him is screaming that it is a bad idea, that it might scare William, that Felicity is right there, watching intently – and she does not like it when he is unnecessarily violent, so she will probably hate him for doing something around the child he knows she is already desperate to know – he lights up his hands. Flames surround his clenched fists, warm and tickling, not hurting him in the slightest as they bend to his will, “My son,” he grinds out, “Can do and say whatever he wants as loudly as he wants, and you can and will do nothing to stop him.” The woman is cowering again, experiencing the fear that she so easily inflicts upon children.

“He is my heir, and you should thank him for gracing you with his presence, you have no right to do anything else where he is concerned.” She looks angry, her pride wounded, but instead she just nods.

“I am sorry, Lord William,” she says. It is clearly forced, but she does it, “I ask for your forgiveness.”

Only then does Oliver look back at his son, frightened of what he will see but needing to know. The boy is nodding his head shocked at her sudden change in attitude, even as he looks at Oliver in awe. Awe. Not fear. There is a slight wobble of fear when the child looks at the fire still burning in Oliver’s hands, but the minute that Oliver extinguishes his flames, it vanishes. Hopeful, Oliver goes over to his son and sister, reaching out to take the child from Thea. William lets him.

From his place in his arms, William says, “You can do it too. The fire thing.”

“Yes.” Oliver admits, “I’m a firebender. You’re not?”

“No, why would I be?” William asks.

“You don’t have to be.” Oliver rushes to assure him, “Just a lot of people who have parents who are firebenders are also firebenders themselves. But not everyone is, especially not if one parent can’t firebend. Your mother couldn’t do it, could she?”

“No.”

“Well you just take after her then.” Oliver assures William.

“That’s… that’s how they’d punish us sometimes.” William confesses in a whisper, not looking at the woman behind the desk, though she clearly still hears.

“I will never punish you like that, William. I will never hurt you.” William relaxes a little.

“Is it a bad thing that I can’t?” he asks, shy.

“No.” Oliver asserts, “See, look here, I can do it and Thea can do it and my friend Sara here, she can too. But most people can’t. Felicity can’t, she’s more like you and she’s one of the best people I know. And one of my favourite people in the world.” William smiles shyly at Felicity, who is rolling up the scroll to pass it back to Oliver, having found nothing.

  
“Hi.” William smiles shyly at her as she waves awkwardly, “You’re one of my father’s favourite people?” Felicity blushes, but to Oliver’s pleasure, she nods, “I’m William.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, William.” Felicity smiles kindly, “I’ve been very excited to.”

“You have?”

“Yep. Your dad has too.”

“And you’re like me? You can’t do the fire thing.”

“No, I can’t do the fire thing.” Felicity laughs.

Oliver smiles too, his heart feeling whole in that moment, “William,” he says, “Felicity is super smart. A lot like you, and she loves math.”

That gets William’s attention, “You love _math_?” he asks, “Nobody loves math!”

Felicity grins, “Well, I do. It’s just so beautiful, everything comes together and it just-”

“Makes sense.” William finishes, and then blushes, “It just makes sense.”

“William, do you like math?” Felicity asks, not having to fake her surprise.

“Yes.” He admits.

“Well, I think we know you definitely didn’t get that from your father.” She addresses Oliver, “Can you believe he’s your son?” Oliver snorts in response, his amusement only increasing as she backtracks, “I- I didn’t mean it… that’s not what I meant. I mean, math isn’t everything! And y-you have- you have so many redeeming qualities, you have amazing abs and-” She gulps, squeezing her eyes closed and she does not see how Oliver and Sara are almost doubling over with their chuckles, nor does she see how confused William is or how pleased Thea looks, “I’m just going to stop talking.” She says, before muttering to herself, “ _Great first impression, Felicity_.” Without realising she is speaking out loud.

“Oliver,” William asks, not taking his eyes off Felicity, “Is Felicity okay?”

Oliver snorts again, “She’s fine, buddy. She’s perfect, in fact.” That goes over Williams head and he opens his mouth to ask but the desk lady clears her throat, “One moment, William. Felicity has cookies, why don’t you ask her who they’re for.” Oliver puts his son down with the suggestion, the boy already rushing eagerly over to investigate the cookie situation. Oliver is ready to finalise signing the papers, ready to go home. And not to his family’s house, he is ready to leave the nation he was born in behind, but that will have to wait.

When he finishes, William and Felicity are engaged in a discussion about some mathematical principle, and for some reason that makes him extremely happy. Just seeing them together, getting along so well, it does something to him. “William,” he says, “Let’s go.” And William grins, looking happy. That is all that Oliver wants for him.

They walk back home together.

Hand in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What does this chapter have to do with air, you ask?
> 
> ...they breathe air??? Air fuels fire??? Air is arguably the most spiritually connected element in this 'verse and Raisa is all Raisa??? There's a case to be made that William could be an air nomad if we went purely on personality and not on the fact that he's Oliver's kid and there are no air nomads gallivanting around in the world at the time this fic is set???
> 
> Okay, fine, it's only called air because it's the next element in the avatar cycle and I wanted the other three to be earth, fire and water respectively.
> 
> Next chapter up on Sunday... if I forget somebody remind me?


	4. Book Four: Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am _so_ sorry I missed Sunday posting, I promise I meant to and I thought about it all day but then I was so busy and I got distracted and by the time Erica reminded me it was way too late because I wanted to do a last minute edit (I added 3.5k whoops).
> 
> But it's here now so I hope the extra scene makes up for the lateness <3
> 
> This is now the end and I'm sad to see the babies go but it's been fun! Lettie, I love you and I wish I could give you the world so I hope that this little look into a mash up of two worlds we both love has made you happy :D

**Book Four: Water**

Once they are in the inner ring of the city, Felicity and Sara part from them, promising to come and visit William soon enough. Oliver, Thea and William are left to make their way deeper into the city, right to the border of the Fire Lord’s property, where their family house is. “This is where you live?” William asks, agog, jaw dropped again.

“For now.” Oliver responds cryptically.

They make it all of three steps inside when they are assaulted by the Queen matriarch’s voice, “Where have you two been?” she shouts, “How dare you walk out of this house when we are entertaining guests? How dare you go off without letting me know where you we-” she comes into view. She sees William. Oliver steels himself, “No!” Moira hisses, “No. You do not get to bring that little street rat into my house. He is not your son, Oliver! He is not my grandson! Your heir will be Laurel’s child, this one has no place in our lives. I forbid it! He is not welcome under my roof!” William cowers behind Oliver’s legs, Oliver can feel the boy trembling and holding on to him with fear.

He explodes, “ _You forbid it_?” he growls, “Well tough, mother, because you have no power to forbid a thing in this house – _my_ house. Your forget yourself, I am no child you can order around anymore, I am a grown man. I am the head of this household and I have been ever since Robert died. You live here by _my_ grace, because I allow it and, in my presumed death, you lived here as Thea’s legal guardian, but this place would have been hers the very _second_ that she was old enough. You have no power here, mother, and no right to decide who I acknowledge as my child or not. You have no right to keep William from me, or to keep him from living here, in the house that will be his when I am gone.

“Here’s how things are going to go: I will bring William to his new room, you will retreat to your own and you will stay in your wing of the house, far away from my son. You don’t want him for a grandson? Well, that’s fine because, as far as I’m concerned, you’re no longer my mother, nor are you his grandmother. You will not talk to him, you will not look at him, you will have nothing to do with his life or mine and you will remember that the only reason I am allowing you to stay here is out of respect for what you did for me when I was a child, and your relationship with Thea. But I cannot just stand by and let you get away with this, with losing more than five years of my son’s life. You will learn that I am my own man, and I make my own decisions, you will learn to respect and adore my son the way that he deserves, or you will no longer have any sort of relationship with me. The second that you displease me, you’re gone.”

Moira takes a step back. Shock and hurt play across her face, and she reaches out to him, “Oliver,”

“No.” he growls, “I’m done.”

“I’m your mother.” She tries, desperate.

“Which is why I’m not kicking you out right now.”

“I’m Thea’s mother!”

“As long as you keep treating William like this, you’re nothing to me!” Thea shouts.

“Quiet, young lady!” Moira snaps back, “You owe me respect, you-”

“She doesn’t, actually.” Oliver cuts in, “She’s my ward. If she wants me to assign somebody else to her care and education, I will gladly do it.”

“Yes.” Thea says without hesitation.

“You’ll stay away from Thea too then, unless she wants you near.” Oliver adds, and then he leaves, no more patience left for his mother for as long as she insists on treating his son in a way that hurts him.

*************************

Several weeks pass in unnerving quiet. Oliver’s harsh words seem to have had their desired effect on Moira and she is steering clear of the east wing of the Queen Mansion, where Oliver and Thea’s bedrooms are. William is settling in well, especially once he gets over the fear that Moira will come barging in at any moment to drag him away. After a few disastrous tries, he even becomes comfortable with Oliver leaving the playroom they spend most of their time in, and is able to be left on his own in there for a short while without succumbing to his fears too.

Oliver had been afraid that he and his son would have nothing in common, especially after meeting the child and discovering just how intelligent he is, but he quickly realises that his intellect does not matter when it comes to bonding with his child. They may not have much in common, but getting to do things for William, doing things with him that he would never ordinarily do just because it makes the boy happy, it is more than he could ever have dreamt.

Over the years of battle and living in the wilderness, Oliver’s cooking skills have developed to be able to make pretty much anything edible taste good. Or, at least, good enough. It is something that he always teases Felicity over. She did, after all, manage to burn water somehow and he joked about the Water Tribe girl having more talent with fire than he, a firebender did. She rarely appreciates it, but she and the rest of the team definitely appreciate his cooking. It is incredible to be able to share that skill with both William and Thea. William in particular, the boy has gone without a decent meal for far too long and the decadent meals Oliver whips up for him are a luxury he never could have dreamt of before. Yet another thing that Oliver is infuriated with his mother about.

Oliver has not set anything formal in place for either Thea or William to continue their education and lives in the Fire Nation, under his care instead of in the situations his mother made for them. He knows that they are both curious as to why he is not even trying, why he spends every moment getting to know and reconnecting with the two of them instead of focusing on his own duties. He lets them believe it is because he is giving them a break as recompense for everything they have endured, and giving himself a break too. It is not – or, more accurately, it is not their schoolwork that he is giving them a break from.

He is putting off all of that until it can be done properly, until it can be done accurately, and he is also putting off leaving, worried about what further change will do to his burgeoning relationship with his son. Worrying that Thea will refuse him, that her seventeen years in the Fire Nation, being indoctrinated with nothing around her to make her see how wrong that is, will keep her from seeing reason. Oliver can feel time slipping away from him, the day drawing nearer when his excuses will run out and he will have to sort something out.

Fortunately for him, Felicity and Sara can feel the time pressure too and they make sure to visit as often as they can (and subtly as they can, though Oliver knows that Sara would not mind her family finding out) to spend time with the three Queens. William and Felicity really get along more than Oliver could ever have imagined. More than he could have hoped for in his wildest dreams. They have a lot in common, both non-benders who have suffered for their lack of bending, both determined to make their mark on the world anyway, both brilliant enough that they are even more impressive and terrifying than most of the benders Oliver has ever met. Oliver can already see a little Felicity in training when he looks at his son and, honestly, if his children – child – turns out to be even half as incredible as she is, Oliver will consider himself the proudest, luckiest father alive.

The only downside to how well they get along is that, whenever they are together, the two of them end up in their own little world, William demanding that Felicity teach him everything she knows about maths and all manner of things. Which is good, it makes him so proud, but also it means that _he_ is not spending time with either of them, and he would be lying if he said that did not make him a little put out. He loves watching them together, he cherishes that just being around them is enough and they do not have to force interaction, but he would definitely not complain if the amount of interaction _with him_ increased ever so slightly. The feeling that he gets in his chest when he watches the two of them together goes a long way to making up for it though.

It does make planning and strategising that much more difficult too, Oliver has to start thinking of more and more creative ways of encouraging Thea to do something to get William’s attention so that he can free up Felicity and sit in a corner talking to she and Sara about their plans and when the best time to act would be and how to come clean to William and Thea and everything in between. He can tell that Thea is getting suspicious. He lets her.

He wants her prepared for him to say something to her and, if she is suspicious, she is more likely to confront him and give him the perfect opening than she is to go to his mother or some other member of the court of the Fire Lord and tell them what is going on. He is slightly apprehensive about talking to her, he does not know how she will take it. He cannot imagine she will be all too happy about the fact that he could have come home at any point during the last few years but chose not to.

William, he is less concerned about. The boy is still careful about what he says and does around others but, as he grows more comfortable with Oliver and the others, he also starts to let more things slip. Small things, just casual in conversation, but enough to confirm the suspicions that arose in Oliver on the day that they met that William is more than a little disenfranchised with the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation on a whole. His son is a genius, and that has allowed him to see past all of the lies and brainwashing of his few years of life.

As comfortable as William is around their small group and even Raisa, Oliver knows that he is still reluctant to go further than the collection of rooms that they spend most of their time in. He knows that the boy is nervous of bumping into Moira, and he is reasonable to be nervous of that. She may be keeping herself to herself, but Oliver knows that she will not just be sat back and doing nothing. It is highly unlikely that Oliver’s words shocked her enough to get her to change her entire personality and far more likely that she is working on some plan of her own. Oliver just hopes to be long gone before her scheming comes to fruition.

*************************

Three weeks after first meeting them, and coming home with Oliver and Thea, William is still reluctant to go anywhere else in the house. Which is why Felicity volunteers to go out to the kitchens to find Raisa and grab the rest of them some snacks and drinks so that William does not have to leave his comfort zone. Oliver is reluctant to let her go, he does not want anything happening to her if she runs into his mother either, but he also has an armful of William and Felicity insists, so he reluctantly agrees. Sara’s smirk rankles him but he has no rebuke for what he knows she is thinking. He really cannot say no to Felicity.

It is becoming a problem. Because he is finding himself just as incapable of saying no to William too.

*************************

Felicity tiptoes down the hallways, anxiety raising in herself once she is out and alone in the huge house. She wants to see Moira Queen about as much as William does, but she also wants to keep him happy so she is willing to risk it for the precious boy who reminds her more of Oliver each day and who has already stolen her heart. She makes it to the entrance to the entertaining room, which it is necessary to go through if she is to get to the kitchen, before the sound of voices brings her to a stop.

Specifically, the voices of Moira Queen, Dinah Lance and Laurel Lance. Her heart freezes in her chest, making her feel cold even in the blistering heat of the Fire Nation summer, but not in the pleasant way that the arctic tundra of her home does. No, this cold is a chilling, uncomfortable. It is like frostbite, bitter and searing and colder than anything else could ever be. She feels all alone in the face of these three women who hate her for all of the wrong reasons.

Still, she cannot seem to tear herself away.

From the sounds of it, they are long past the point of Moira making apologies and excuses for what happened at the dinner a while ago, which makes Felicity wonder just how many times they have talked since. And does Oliver know? Because they sound comfortable, collected… familial, even.

She can only catch the odd word, and she knows that she should not eavesdrop, she knows that she is supposed to be headed for Raisa. But she is also definitely not willing to walk through that particular room of women, so her only options are to wait for them to be done or to head back and make somebody else go in her stead. Felicity is well aware of which of those options she _should_ go for, which is the more moral. But she is also unable to leave a mystery unsolved. And she needs to know what they are talking about.

She presses her cheek against the thin wall, getting as close as she can so that she can hear everything.

“I don’t see any use in waiting,” says one voice – Dinah’s, Felicity recognises, “It’s been more than five years of waiting at this point, and we definitely want to do it before the end of summer. I for one don’t want to wait a whole extra year, I propose that we set the date for the Last Day of Agni.” What date are they setting for the end of summer? It must be an important one, the Last Day of Agni is an important day for the Fire Nation, a day for them to do holy, important things under the eye of the spirit of fire, Agni, and his great sun before the moon takes over the sun for the colder, winter months.

And, though it is known to few Fire Nation citizens anymore, the Water Tribes know it and their own holidays, the First and Last Days of Tui, the moon spirit to be days of balance, where the sun and moon preside over the world equally. It is a time when fire and water meet in the middle. Once, the Fire Nation and Water Tribes had met, coming together to celebrate the balance of their elements, but those days are long gone and the Fire Nation remembers only the First and Last Days of Agni, the days that bracket the time of their own power.

“You’re right, Dinah.” Moira agrees, bringing Felicity from her musings on those days, the days when she and Oliver are as close as they can ever spiritually be, “It will be something of a rush but I’m sure people will understand why we’re pushing it forwards after everything that’s happened. And besides,” she add smugly, “We shouldn’t have any issues getting everything ready on short notice. Anybody should count themselves blessed to be allowed to be involved in such an event, they’ll trip over their poor little feet trying to please us.”

“I want to wear red and gold,” Laurel announces, “Like Ilah did.” Felicity recognises the name Ilah – it is the name of the Fire Lady, wife of Azulon. “It would show our strength and the nobility of our houses for us to align ourselves with them. And Ollie is a firebender, he should wear red.”

  
“I agree,” Moira says, “We should make the colour scheme red with gold and black accents. I will have Oliver wear his armour, to remind people of his service and sacrifice for this nation. Though we may need to get a new uniform commissioned for him, I don’t think he has his old one left. And you shall wear gold accents to highlight your allegiance to him, and to contrast the black he will be in.”

“Perfect.” Comes Laurel’s voice, full of self-satisfaction.

“And what of the… _child_?” Dinah asks, her question followed by the sound of a disgusted scoff from Laurel and Felicity is about one second away from barging in there and forcing them to correct their tones when talking about William.

Moira sighs, “I’m afraid that is out of my hands now. He is here with Oliver, and Oliver has made it clear that he will not be giving the boy up under any circumstances. I’m afraid you will have to live with it, Laurel. Though I’m sure that, once the novelty has worn off and Oliver has realised how hard parenthood actually is, you can convince him to send the boy away to a military academy or something and focus on raising a legitimate heir. Oliver will forget about him once he has a proper heir.”

Felicity feels sick. She is so disgusted by the way that they are talking about William, what they are planning to do to him, the way that they talk about him like he is nothing, she is so angered by the way that they see Oliver, how little they know of his nature and how much they are wrongly assuming that she does not understand the implications at first. Icy fury is racing through her, and if she were a bender she knows that the air around her would be freezing as the water particulates did to match her mood, and it overwhelms her mind so much that she does not put two and two together.

Not until Moira spells it out for her, “You just have to keep him busy, Laurel. You have to make him see that he must work again, get him to re-join the war as a general – Fire Lord Azulon would be happy to have him – and then he’ll be so busy with that and you’ll keep him busy making an heir that he will forget about the boy, and he’ll forget about whatever silly notions he has about your sister’s servant girl. After the solstice, once you’re married, you’ll see. Everything will work out exactly as we want it to.”

The ice in Felicity’s veins turns inwards, impaling her heart. They are planning a wedding. Oliver’s wedding. To Laurel. Oliver and Laurel are getting married.

How could he do that? Does William know? What does he think? And what of Thea, what does she feel about all of this? From what Felicity can tell, there is no love lost between her and her brother’s betrothed. And Sara… surely Sara must know too. Why has she not told Felicity?

She cannot stay to listen to another word, her heart is shattering in her chest and all that she can hear is the cracking of the image of the world she has built up in her mind, the destruction of her hopes and everything she thought to be true.

She runs.

Through the house, avoiding Oliver’s rooms, looking for the exit. She races out of the back and into the gardens and she does not stop. Not until she finds herself emerging through a ring of trees, at the centre of which is a beautiful pond. Felicity knows that there is water in the city, the harbour is along one of the great lakes atop the mountain, but she has not been able to get to them in her time in the heart of the country fighting hard to oppress her people.

Seeing the cool, clear element is a breath of fresh air to her. Felicity crashes into the water, needing to get out of the heat of the Fire Nation, needing to feel her natural element all around her so that she can get just a semblance of normalcy. She may not be a bender, but she is a proper Water Tribe girl and there is something about water that will always call to her. Something about the night and the moon and everything her ancestors were called by that still resonates within her.

She is aware of the tears dripping down her face and making petite ripples as they hit the surface of the pond she is half submerged in but she makes no effort to wipe them away. She just sits and cries, hating herself for being so wrong. She had thought that, now that they have William, they were planning to return to the Earth Kingdom and John and Roy and the mission. She had not known how wrong she could be.

But clearly Oliver only means for herself and Sara to go back, clearly something about having William has made him change his mind. Maybe even something about being around Laurel again. Thinking about it, she should have known. Their life, it is no life for a child, William should have a steady home, with Oliver there for him all the time and the safety that Oliver’s position provides. He should not have to move around all the time, he should not have to live as they do. And Oliver deserves to be happy too, he deserves to be with the woman he has spent half of his life loving.

Felicity knows that he will not give up the mission, nor will he give up William as those women have assumed, but there is no reason that he cannot stay in the Fire Nation. He could potentially make even greater change from within, as a general. He could sway the Fire Lord, sway the war, bring it to a peaceful end that does not involve the Fire Nation army razing the world to the ground.

It makes sense, it would be a logical choice and, honestly, Felicity cannot fault him for it. He has no idea that Laurel is planning to send William as far away as she can, he does not know about the delusion she holds about getting rid of the boy. For all he knows, Laurel is eager to become his stepmother. Really, there is nothing she can judge Oliver for, nothing he has done wrong. Nothing that she should not have seen coming.

Except she is falling apart. He has been so affectionate with her over the last few weeks, so reminiscent of that night by the lake, the moment that she thought he would kiss her. She had started to think _things_ again. She thought, for the briefest second, that he wanted her the way she wants him. She thought they could have a future. That is her fault for making the same mistake again.

But maybe things will be easier when she and Sara leave. Maybe she will be able to get over him finally when she is not around him most hours of every day. It will tear her apart to leave him and William behind, but maybe it will be for the best.

As easy as it is to think that, it does not make the tears stop.

*************************

Oliver starts to feel uneasy the second that Felicity leaves the room, the aching idea that he should have gone instead of her, or at least made Thea go instead, filling his mind. He is torn between wanting to take advantage of the moment with William and the attention that his son is giving him and the need to chase after the woman he loves.

They have been living in a delightful little bubble in his wing of the house for weeks now, but the rest of the house is another story. Out there is his mother and whatever she is occupying her time with and Oliver knows that, if she catches Felicity wandering around the hallways, she will strike. She already has enough ideas about their relationship, finding Felicity in their home will only serve to cement those ideas and Oliver dreads to think about what she could say to Felicity if that happens.

For the entire time she is gone, Oliver is unable to fully settle, he cannot get his mind away from her and what may be happening beyond the walls of his domain. Especially as the time drags on. The first few times that he checks how long she has been gone, he knows that it is irrational and the dragging of time is due only to his own personal fears. But then, when he looks, time actually starts to be passing, and she has been gone for far longer than she should have been. He knows it, deep in his bones, he can feel it. Something has happened.

He foists William off onto Sara, who wastes no time in convincing his son to copy her forms with a stick that serves as a makeshift weapon. Oliver likes to leave whenever his friend does that, he does not want to think about a situation occurring where his son may need to know how to defend himself, regardless of how excited his son gets at the attention from Sara. It makes him think too much of what happened before he and Felicity nearly kissed by the lake, of how terrified he was. Logically, he knows that William may one day need to defend himself, that there is only so much he can do to protect his son and that the Earth Kingdom is gradually becoming a more dangerous place, but it does not bear thinking about.

Leaving his son excitedly stabbing at the air with his stick, Oliver rushes down the hallway to find his beloved, making a beeline for the kitchens where he hopes that Felicity has just been held up by tasting Raisa’s cooking or waiting for the older woman to finish a task. But, as he grows closer, it becomes apparent that is not the case.

Voices are coming from the entertaining lounge, voices belonging to people he knows Felicity would not be willing to interrupt in a meeting. He slows as he reaches the door, debating between listening in, forging ahead or turning back to see where else she may have gone even as his heart settles in his stomach, dread filling him as he gets an idea of what may have caused the hold up.

In the end, he has no time to make a decision. The door opens, revealing Laurel, Dinah and Moira, all of whom have self-satisfied expressions on their face as they gossip about the various goings on in Fire Nation high society as they are wont to do at the end of a successful meeting.

“Mother.” He greets, “Dinah, Laurel. I had not known that you would be coming here today.”

Laurel smiles, hands reaching out to smooth over his lapels (and lingering on his pectoral muscles) in a way that makes him step back to avoid her, “Well, surprise!” she grins, “Your mom wanted us to come along so that we could discuss some things. _Very important_ things.” She hints heavily at something, but Oliver has no idea what.

From the look that Moira is shooting his way, he can tell that she is expecting him to ask for forgiveness for his behaviour at dinner the other week, but he has no intentions of apologising. Certainly not before they all apologise for their various roles in keeping his son from him and their own behaviour that night. Probably not even then.

“That’s nice.” Is all that he says, tense, mind still focused on Felicity’s whereabouts, “Have any of you seen Raisa?” he questions.

Moira looks shocked at the request but replies, “She’s in the kitchens, she prepared something for our guests to eat and I believe she is now getting started on dinner preparations. I had thought that we could all sit for something together tonight.” Oliver has no idea who ‘we’ includes, whether she just means herself, Thea and him or whether she intends to have a redo of their last dinner, but either way he has no intention of attending.

“I’m sorry, Mother.” He half-lies, “But William and I already have plans for tonight. If you’d have alerted me sooner I could have made different plans but as it is I will not go back on my word to my son.” The warning glare that she sends him would make a lesser person quiver in their boots, it would have made the Oliver of a few years ago – the Oliver of a few weeks ago – quiver in his boots, but Oliver has given up on caring for his mother’s approval. “Which,” he continues, building on the lie to further advantage himself, “If you’ll excuse me, I do need to talk to Raisa about. Farewell.” He slips past them, ignoring the way that Laurel leans into him as he does so, making him move closer to his own mother on her other side in order to avoid her touch.

“It’s so nice to see you again, Ollie.” He hears Laurel call out from behind him, “I’m very excited for the next time.” Oliver ignores her, not bothering to reply as he continues to move forwards under the pretence that he has not heard her. He may as well not have, all of his focus is on Felicity.

He wastes no more time, racing through the entertaining lounge and into the kitchen. It is not empty, there are a couple of the household servants working away in there on something that already smells delicious, but the room is worryingly devoid of Raisa. Surely she should have been spotted by his mother if she had left the kitchens?

“Where’s Raisa?” he asks a girl he does not recognise (she must have been employed by his family in the years he was gone) frantically.

“Uh,” she blinks up at him, equal parts frightened and stunned that he is addressing her, “S-she left, sir.” She stammers, “A short while ago. I don’t know where.”

Oliver curses, “Sorry,” he apologises to the young woman, once again sending her into shock. People of his class rarely apologise to servants, it must be a first for her, “I’m not mad at you, I just need to find her. I have to go.” He rushes back out, leaving her gaping in his wake.

He looks for Felicity as he goes, panicked as his mind swims with the possibilities of what may have happened. He is fairly certain that none of the women said anything to her, he is sure they would have mentioned something about her presence in the house if they had seen her, sure that Laurel would not have been nearly so friendly. But he also has no idea what the trio were discussing, or what Felicity may have overheard. He cannot think of anything that would cause for her to vanish, but he also cannot put anything past those three.

It is difficult not to let his mind spiral into other, less plausible, more terrifying thoughts.

In his search, he does not pay attention to where he is going and finds himself at the entrance to the property, where his mother and her guests are lingering as they say their goodbyes. His heart pounds, he comes to a skidding stop just before he would be in their view.

“Thank you both for coming.” He hears his mother say, “We will have to meet again soon to continue our plans – shall we say in two days at the same time?”

“That sounds ideal” Dinah agrees, “We can start to look into who we want to make the dress and provide the food.”

“I want my dress to be made by the same people who made Ilah’s dress.” Laurel interjects, and Oliver cannot help but wonder why they are discussing a specific dress that Laurel wants, “Ollie and the Fire Lord grew up together, there is nobody else closer to him in status. It would only make sense for both of their brides to be wearing the very highest quality dresses at their weddings.”

Oliver thinks that his mother is agreeing with the young woman he once cared for, but he does not truly know. Blood is rushing through his ears, drowning out their chatter, burning fury is coursing through his veins as her words sink in, their meaning becoming painfully clear. _That_ is what his mother has been doing in his absence. She has been planning to somehow get him married without even discussing it with him.

The light flares ever brighter, the flames reacting to his violent mood. He wants to attack something, to burn something to the ground, his rage is so consuming. He hears a little squeal from Dinah in the next room as it happens, and it brings him back to earth, making him force his heartbeat to calm, force the flames to settle. His anger does not lessen, but his concern at being found listening in on them is enough to dampen the visceral reaction he is having. Though he fears that his mother will work it out, the he was the cause. But he keeps himself under control, they are not worth it. Not when all of their planning will be in vain. Not when he will be gone without a trace before they know it.

That gives him a sense of smug satisfaction that is almost enough to make up for the control he is exerting on himself. Almost, but whatever Felicity has overheard must have distressed her, and could potentially have ruined his chances of a relationship with her and nothing is worth her being upset.

Thinking about his mother waking up to find them all gone, her having to tell the Lances who will also be missing Sara by that time, it is extremely pleasing. Imagining the explanations they will come up with when they learn that he has run off with Sara and Felicity. Even thinking about how Laurel has probably already bragged about their impending nuptials to half of the high society he has been avoiding by now and how she will have to face them after he has skipped out on her with her sister and the servant again.

A pang of guilt hits him briefly for the way that he is revelling in the thought of the repercussions that the woman he once cared for will have to face but then he remembers that Felicity is missing and that very woman just presumed to marry him without even so much as letting him know of her intentions, let alone asking for his consent. He is so done with her, his return to the Fire Nation has shown the woman she has grown into and it is not a pretty thing. All of the worst parts of her personality have been highlighted in their years apart. In a way, Oliver mourns for the girl he once knew who was ambitious and brilliant, not jealous and manipulative.

It dawns on him that this is what Felicity must have heard, this is what must have sent her running. His mind races, his anger somehow helping him focus, clearing the fog of fear that had previously taken over. He tries to work out where she would have gone, there are so many options but he knows her so well. He knows her better than almost anybody, just like she knows him.

He has been thinking of it all wrong, she will not be in the house. She has no connections here beyond him, William, Thea and Sara, this house means nothing to her. There is no comfort in the house, and she clearly wants to avoid human contact. So she is somewhere else, somewhere outside the house. The gardens. Of course, he should have thought of it immediately. She will be seeking out home comforts, something impossible for her to find in a Fire Nation household. She will be looking for greenery, nature, something that takes her back to the home that she has made in the Earth Kingdom with their team.

She will be looking for water, her true home.

He knows where she is.

*************************

She has no idea how long has passed when a rustle of leaves makes her aware of somebody else nearby, she looks up, not even bothering to wipe away the tears, after all she is sat in the middle of a pond, she is not going to come out of this encounter looking good. A figure makes itself visible from behind the foliage, it is Raisa.

“Raisa!” she gasps, sniffling back the last remnants of her crying, “I was just looking for you.”

“In a pond?” the older woman asks, not unkindly, but it makes Felicity blush with embarrassment nonetheless.

“Uh…”

“Or perhaps you came looking for me in the kitchens and overheard a meeting in the entertaining room?” Raisa suggests insightfully.

“Oh.” Is all that Felicity can think of as a reply.

Raisa does not press the conversation on, instead she sits by the pond, not questioning why Felicity got in, not asking her to get out, she just sits and begins to speak, “When I was a young girl, I lived with and worked for the family that my mother worked for. They were good people, they lived on an island far away from the city and it was peaceful there. The husband was a very wise man, he knew much about the spirit world and the countries of the world and all kinds of bending and, when I was a child, he was kind enough to talk to me. He taught me all sorts of things, things that I will remember for the rest of my life, just as I will remember him and his wife and what he did for the people on that island.”

Felicity gets the sense that it makes Raisa sad to talk about this, “What happened to him?” she asks.

“He died. The island was volcanic and the mountain erupted. He died to save all of us – he was a very powerful bender, you see – and he died a hero. Though few people remember that now. But his wife never wanted him to be a hero, though she was proud of him for it. She just wanted more time with him, and she regretted not telling him how she felt earlier for the rest of her life. She always regretted wasting those early years of knowing one another, because they were more years that they could have loved one another in.” It dawns on Felicity who she is talking about, but she also gets the sense that she should not mention it. Something tells her to stay quiet.

“I’m sorry.” Is her only response in the end, that feeling keeping her from saying more.

Raisa smiles, “There’s no need for you to be. I know that he lives on in the spirit world, and I still remember everything he taught me. I remember the things that he told me.” She pauses, “You don’t belong here,” and Felicity tenses, “Your kind were not built for this kind of place and Mister Oliver knows it. Just like how your home was not built for him or William.”

Felicity gasps, suddenly scared. Raisa knows who she is… or rather, what she is. Raisa knows she is a Water Tribe girl, “How do you-” she starts.

“I told you,” Raisa smiles, “I remember everything that I was taught. I know what the eyes of a woman out of her element look like.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that you need to leave this place and go somewhere you can be happy.”

Felicity sniffles again, “Are you… you’re saying that I need to let Oliver and William go, right? That I need to leave them.”

To Felicity’s surprise, Raisa laughs, “No, my child, I’m saying that Oliver knows you don’t belong here any more than he belongs in the artic and it will not be long now before you all go back to the Earth Kingdom to continue the good work you have been doing. I’m saying that you need to be there for him, things will be hard, especially now that William is involved. Mister Oliver will need you to be strong by his side and you cannot do that for him here.”

“But he’s getting married.” Felicity argues.

“Has he told you that?” that gives Felicity pause, she shakes her head, “I think that you will find that Mister Oliver knows less than you are imagining about the things happening under his roof.” Raisa says cryptically, “And I think you will find him more opposed to it than you fear. His heart, after all, does not belong to the woman who presumes to marry him. It belongs to another.”

“What do you mean by that?” Felicity asks, very confused.

“I think you need to talk to him. Honestly.” Raisa says in lieu of answering, “He’s coming this way now, I’ll leave you be. Remember what I have said, and I’ll bring you snacks to the playroom.” The strange woman makes her way to the trees, about to disappear but then she turns back, “Tomorrow night would be a nice night to go out for a stroll.” She adds cryptically, “There’ll be a full moon.” And with that she is gone, leaving Felicity befuddled and still sat in the pond, soaking wet.

*************************

Only seconds later, a crashing sound is followed by a deep, frantic call, “Felicity?” he asks, and Felicity tenses up. She does not want Oliver to see her like this. Another crash sounds, and the man in question appears in a burst of broken twigs, panting heavily as he comes to a dead stop at the sight of Felicity in the water.

“You’re in the water.” He states, almost shocked enough to make Felicity giggle, “Did you overheat again? Are you okay? You took ages and then we realised you’d gone missing and then I couldn’t find you anywhere and…” he pauses to breathe, “I was worried. Please… you can’t just disappear like that. Especially not here.” By here, he only partially means his family’s ancestral property. What he really means is Capital City, the Fire Nation, behind enemy lines.

It is dangerous for them all but, Felicity is smart enough to admit, especially for her. She is not a fighter, she has skills but combat is not one of them. She cannot bend and, on top of all of that, she is not even Fire Nation, she is the natural opposite and her excuse of being a citizen from the outskirts is flimsy at best. “What happened?” Oliver finishes, taking in the tear marks on her cheeks, the protective way she is clutching her sodden clothes to her body.

Felicity adopts the most convincing smile she can, “Nothing, I’m fine. Just overheated, like you said.” She lies.

Oliver does not believe a word, “Fe-li-ci-ty.” Is all that he says, but it is enough.

She sighs, wondering what to say, and then thinks about Raisa and the advice she had offered, “Are you planning to stay here when Sara and I escape?” she blurts out, eyes widening when she realises that she actually went and asked him.

“What?” Oliver asks, completely taken by surprise, “Of course not, the plan has always been to get in, get William and Thea if we can and then get out. Why would you think that?”

Felicity ignores his question, “So you’re definitely not planning to stick around? Even if you can provide William more of a stable life here?”

“No.” He is telling the truth. He sighs, “I know it will be difficult. And things will not be the same, but there’s no way I’m leaving my son or my sister in this place, not if I can do something about it – even if I were to stay with them. I’ve been thinking about it and I thought… if you think it’s a good idea, maybe we find a place where we can set up as permanent a base as we can? That way William will have some stability and we can fortify it properly to keep him – and you – safe when we’re out on mission.”

“That’s a good idea.” Felicity replies, almost in a trance. He is not planning to stay. He has no plans to get married. He has been thinking of a way to build a home and continue their mission in the Earth Kingdom. A weight lifts from her chest.

“Why did you ask?” Oliver interrupts her thoughts, voice suspecting.

“It doesn’t matter.” Felicity airily dismisses, standing up with the intention to move back into the house. The sun is so bright and hot she will probably almost completely dry off on the walk.

“It does.” Oliver counters, “Or you wouldn’t be sat crying in the nearest available water source.” He is annoyingly perceptive sometimes. It makes no sense because sometimes he is annoyingly obtuse. A man of many contradictions is Oliver Jonas Queen.

“Okay, fine. But you can’t get mad.” Felicity gives in, she knows he will not drop it unless she gives him something. He just grunts, and she knows that is the best version of an agreement she will get from him, “When I went to get Raisa, I found your mother in the entertaining room – do you realise how ridiculously posh that sounds?” he smiles, fleetingly amused, “– and she was with Laurel and her mother.”

“What?” he interrupts, already looking angry.

“Oliver.” She reprimands, and he shuts up so she can continue, “Please try to stay calm… theywereplanningyourweddingtolaurelforthelastdayofagni. And… they were planning to get you to send William to a military academy after and to get you to reenlist.”

Oliver blinks a few times, appalled, before yelling, “WHAT?”

Felicity winces, “Oliv-”

“I can’t believe that woman.” He seethes, “I mean – I knew about the marriage.” Felicity blanches, “I overheard them when I was looking for you but I had no idea that she intended to do it so soon – to blindside me, but to do it for that reason? To try and get rid of William in a new way?

“I ban her from messing with Thea’s life or William’s and I make it clear she can do nothing about me taking him in and she should stay away so she decides to meddle in _my_ life to get her way instead? She takes advantage of my ignoring her to try and marry me off. What? Just to have some illusion of control over me again? Just to foist getting rid of William off onto somebody else? What did she think was going to happen once she told me? That I’d just roll over and agree to a marriage I’ve been fighting and avoiding for a decade in a matter of weeks?”

“Oliver!” Felicity interrupts his infuriated pacing, aware of the fact that flames are beginning to dance around his fingers and they are surrounded by highly flammable, very dry trees. It works, he stops his pacing, notices the agitated fire he is stoking, calms his bending and looks back at her. “I know this is a lot to take in, but it’s okay. We’ll be gone before then, right? They can’t touch William.”

  
It settles him a bit, though Felicity can still tell that he is angry internally at his mother. Justifiably so. Hesitantly, he settles beside her and pauses before asking her a question, “Felicity… is that why you ran away? Is that why you looked for water to hide in? Because you thought I was staying here to get married?”

Felicity blushes, “Yes.” She admits.

“You know I’d never leave you, right? I’d never leave the team, not unless it was to keep you all safe. And I’d definitely never leave you all to stay in this infernal place.” Still blushing, she nods. She knows that he would never just abandon the team, but she also knows that she does not mean to him what he means to her and William… William is the most important thing now. It would be reasonable for Oliver to put him above the rest of them, it would be the right thing for him to do.

“Or…” Oliver’s tone is odd, if Felicity did not know any better she would describe it as strangely hopeful, “Were you upset because you thought I was staying here to marry Laurel?”

He went there.

Once again, Raisa’s words echo in Felicity’s mind. She takes a chance, “Yes.” It comes out barely loud enough to be a whisper, but Oliver hears it.

“Do you remember that night?” he asks, and before he even specifies which night, Felicity knows. There have been hundreds of nights, but there is only one that he is referring to, “By the lake, with the stars shining down on us just after I stopped that soldier from… from hurting you more.

“We sat together, I was worried because you didn’t insist on patching me up and you weren’t looking after your own burn properly and you looked so… lonely… but so beautiful, I couldn’t stay away. And we talked and everything was so perfect and you looked so radiant… and then Sara interrupted and I found out about William.”

“I remember.” She breathes, already feeling like she is on the verge of tears again.

“I wanted to kiss you.” He says it plainly, “I have wanted to kiss you so many times, both before and since, but that night, that moment, it was the only time I have ever given into that urge. I wanted to kiss you more than I have ever wanted anything else in my life and I would have if Sara hadn’t interrupted.”

Felicity’s breath catches in her throat, “Oliver I-”

“I’m in love with you, Felicity.” Once again, she freezes. The ice inside her shifts from daggers in her heart to a fortifying liquid cold, something that takes her back home even under the midday Fire Nation late summer sun, something that makes her feel like everything will be right with the world, “I love you.” He says it again.

Felicity breathes, her breath coming out as wisps of steam, cold meeting hot, “I would have let you.” She confesses, quiet enough that it barely carries, “I love you too, Oliver.”

He wastes no time, he rushes forwards, sweeping her into his arms with no care for the water dripping from her, soaking his feet, and he fixes his lips to hers, burning against her like a furnace, fire on ice, and it is so, so perfect. His heat matches her cold perfectly, it makes her feel warm, not hot, burning in the best way. He gasps into her mouth, breathing something in between each meeting of their lips and she realises that he is saying her name, over and over, reverent, adoring, in love.

“I love you so much.” She murmurs back, aware that she is crying, “More than a human being should love another human being. Loving you has changed my life.”

“Knowing you has changed my life, Felicity… I’m a better human being, just because I have loved you. I want to wake up with you in my arms every morning, I want to fall asleep with you curled into me. I… I want to raise William with you, Felicity.” His bright blue eyes – so unusual for a firebender, even with the gold flecks that sparkle within them – bore into her own ocean eyes with an honest intensity that takes her breath away.

“Are you sure?” is all that she can ask, and he nods without hesitation, “Because he might not want that… I’m not his mom, I don’t want him to think I’m trying to replace her and-”

“Fe-li-ci-ty.” He cuts her babble off, “I’m sure.” He says it with an absolute certainty that is difficult to argue with, “I’ve seen you with him and I am one hundred percent sure, if you want, his life will be better with you in it. Just like mine. He’s told me several times that he wishes you lived with us so you could be around more. He even asked when I was going to ask you out – I think Thea’s been talking to him.” The last part is a grumble. At least the meddling habits that Thea has inherited from their mother are mostly benign so far.

“Oh.” Felicity has to hold back tears. “Are you sure? That’s what you want?” William wants her around. He does not feel like she is encroaching on his mother’s territory, he wants her around for _her_. Is this what it feels like to Oliver whenever the boy goes to him for comfort and protection? “Are you sure? That’s what you want?” she checks.

“I’m sure.” Oliver mimics with a smile, still holding her tight.

Felicity can think of nothing to do except swoop up and steal another kiss from the man who has stolen her heart, the father of the boy who stole it with him. He gladly reciprocates.

“We have to get out of here.” She tells him when they finally pull apart far enough for her to talk.

“We do.” He agrees, “Tomorrow. Tell Sara, get everything ready. At dusk I’ll talk to Thea and William, at nightfall we leave.” Felicity’s heart skips another beat, making her wonder if it is safe for hearts to be so erratic in such a short span of time but she figures there is nothing that can be done for it.

“Tomorrow.” She grins, “We’re going home tomorrow.”

“We’re making a home tomorrow.” He corrects, “You and me and William and our loved ones, we’re going to make a home. And I’m going to prove to you just how much I love you and make up for the last few years of self-restraint and loving you from afar.”

“Years?” her jaw drops.

“ _So_ many years.” He confesses, “Almost as long as I have known you. Loving you is both the easiest and hardest thing I have ever done.”

“We’re both idiots.” Felicity huffs, part of her suddenly extremely frustrated with both herself and Oliver in years gone by, the other part still convinced this is a dream, it cannot be real. Too good to be true. She feels a sudden affinity for the wife Raisa once worked for, and the older woman’s reasons for telling the story become clear, “I’ve loved you for so long, we should have just hurried up and done something about it.”

“I wasn’t worthy of you back then.” Oliver denies, “I’m not now, but I was even less then.”

“Excuse me, I’m the only one who gets to decide who is and isn’t worthy of me.”

Oliver smiles, and for the first time Felicity recognises the arousal in his bright eyes, “Well I wasn’t ready then. But I am now, and I’m going to give you the best life I possibly can. In the Earth Kingdom, where we can both be comfortable and happy.”

“Tomorrow.” She repeats.

“Tomorrow.” He confirms.

*************************

Oliver is extremely nervous the following night. It mixes in with the excitement churning in his stomach. The happiness. Felicity loves him. She wants to raise William with him. Life has never been better. Or… life will never have been better than it will in a few hours when, hopefully, he, Felicity, William, Thea and Sara are all on their way to the Earth Kingdom and far away from the nightmare that his home country has become.

Hopefully.

If Thea does not hate him for everything.

If William cooperates and does not protest or freak out.

He packs for them whilst they are out, he sent them both out under the pretence of being low on food. They are not, but they can never have enough food for such an escape. They have a long way to travel. William barely has anything to pack, even after weeks of being spoiled by several people, so it does not take long. But Thea has far too much. It makes him glad to be the one packing, he knows that she would take far too much but it is also a long and tedious process to work though her many belongings. He shoves everything that looks useful, durable or sentimental into a bag, it is large but small enough that they can carry until they get on the ship Sara and Felicity sailed in on.

It will be her choice whether she comes or not, but at least he is prepared in case she does decide to.

They arrive back to find Oliver awaiting them, three bags before him and a grim look on his face. “Dad?” William asks, and Oliver could cry. It is the first time his son has called him dad, and he has done it with such worry on his face. But he keeps it together.

“The two of you might want to sit.” Oliver tells them, “All I ask is that you keep your voices down, let me know if anybody comes near and wait until I’m finished before you start talking and asking questions.” The severity of his expression must be enough to keep them quiet because they just nod.

And so Oliver tells them everything. All of the details of his time at war, what happened after Robert Queen’s death, the gory details of his realisation that they, the Fire Nation, are the bad guys in this story. He tells them about how he started to fight back, how he saw his opportunity when he was presumed dead and he ran with it. He details out how much he missed Thea, how much he wished he could go home to her but how he was fighting for her, for her future. He tells them about meeting John and Felicity, finding Sara again after all those years, having Roy join the crusade. Everything. He tries to keep it as tame as he can for William, but otherwise he lays his past out for them in precise detail, right up until the news of William reached them and they made plans to come back.

They let him.

William looks puzzled throughout the whole explanation, understanding more than most children his age would but still not everything. But when Oliver is finished, he smiles, he looks proud and Oliver has never been happier with his life choices than when he gets that silent approval from his son. Thea is expressionless. The whole time that he talks, she just takes it in without reacting, not even looking at him.

“So… you mean to say that the entire time I thought you were dead, you could have come home to me?”

Oliver flinches, “Yes.” He whispers, broken, “It was one of the hardest choices I ever made, staying away, and now I wish I’d come back for you sooner. But, Thea, you have to understand… the Fire Nation is destroying everything, everybody who knows what we are doing hates us and it won’t be long until the whole of the Earth Kingdom – the rest of the world – knows. It’s horrendous, what’s happening. I had to do something. I wanted to make you proud, to give you a future where you’re not forced into some marriage with a sociopathic general or worse, where you can be _you_ and you’re not forced to revere some twisted man as a god.”

“So the whole time that I thought you’d given up your life for a chance to escape your fu- messed up relationship with Laurel, you were fighting to save innocent lives?” Thea amends, carefully censoring herself around William.

Oliver has never thought about it like that, “Yes. In a way.” He says. Thea rises, Oliver braces himself for the worst. And then she hugs him. Everything is right in the world, everything is perfect when he feels a small figure squeeze in between he and Thea, hugging them both.

“Dad?” William asks, and Oliver hums his acknowledgement, “Is that why you didn’t get mad about me getting in trouble at the orphanage? Because you do things you’d get in trouble for too to help people?”

“Yeah buddy.” Oliver confirms, keeping his anger at those people who should have cared for children as internal as possible.

“One more question,” Thea starts, “What’s with the bags?”

Oliver grins, knowing that there is still much for them to talk about and Thea will probably have many more questions soon enough, but confident that he has the two most important members of his Fire Nation family on his side enough that they will follow him.

He has a chance.

*************************

The ocean is beautiful. It feels like home, calling her with gentle blue waves that rock the metal contraption beneath her feet that floats along the mottled glassy surface in a rhythmic, soothing manner. Felicity can feel the air cooling the further and further that they sail, salty sea breeze spraying up at her, renewing her. She sighs happily.

Two massive arms encircle her from behind, and she leans back into them, the feeling both so familiar and so new at the same time. The world is a little more perfect, the moonlight glinting just that much brighter off the peaceful ripples in the water. “William asleep?” she asks, reluctant to break the calm quiet, the relaxing noise of the waves crashing against the ship, but wanting to know.

“He’s asleep.” Oliver’s chest rumbles behind her as he speaks, “He asked me to tell you he loves you.” Felicity smiles happily at that. He loves her, it means the world to her. “I love you too.” Oliver adds, needing to get his own say on the matter.

“And I love you both.”

The world is still in chaos, a nation governed by a despotic regime falls behind them, a Kingdom at war awaits them and they are right at the centre of it all. But Felicity has everything she needs right there. Leaving the Fire Nation was harder than arriving, Raisa found them as Felicity and Sara arrived, as Thea rushed back for some items she insisted were essential. She just smiled knowingly and declined Oliver’s offer for her to join them, saying that her place was within the Fire Nation, keeping an eye on things from within. Felicity got the impression it was not the last they would be seeing of the woman but leaving her behind was hard, especially with her words still ringing in Felicity’s mind.

Oliver looked pained to leave the woman who raised him to the mercies of his mother and nation, but Raisa did not even look bothered. She encouraged them to go, and it was impossible to argue with her.

So then they left, stealing through the night. They came upon just one guard shift, and Oliver and Sara took care of the three men in no time. They did not even need to bend a single flame. Leaving the city was not as hard as it could have been, but harder than entering was. Instead of moving in with no obstacles, being spirited straight to their destination, they had to dodge and hide and take a twisted pathway that would be difficult to follow to ensure their safety.

They had almost been free when Oliver left, taking a detour. Within twenty minutes, smoke began to rise from somewhere nearby, and Felicity realised that he had gone back to the orphanage, evacuated the children and then set it alight so that nobody could suffer like those children had again. That set off alarms, it brought soldiers running, it left the four of them to wait anxiously at the edge of the city, frightened that Oliver would not come but equally frightened of being caught by a border patrol.

But he came back, and they all made their way down to the docks unimpeded, the soldiers too busy investigating the fire, rounding up the children. News from the city had still not made it, and smoke billowing from there was not entirely unusual for a city filled with firebenders, sitting atop a dormant volcano. Boarding Sara’s ship – which is actually Oliver’s – was easy enough.

The tension did not leave Felicity until the Fire Nation’s shores faded into the distance, with no pursuing ships in sight.

But now, with the ocean all around her, with Thea and William sleeping below deck, and Sara off training in some martial art she picked up somewhere, and Oliver’s arms around her – their relationship just between them, new and exciting but also familiar and comforting – Felicity finally feels like she can relax. She finally feels happy again, her natural element on every side, her family nearby and John and Roy drawing ever closer.

She leans her head back onto Oliver’s chest, sighing happily again. “Want to go to bed?” he asks, face buried in the crook of her neck, lips brushing her skin.

“Together?” she checks, excitement flooding her.

“Together.” The word is Oliver’s own happy sigh, and he lets her free of his arms, drawing one hand into his as he leads her to the captain’s quarters.

Felicity has no idea what they future may hold, but she knows it will be complicated and difficult and tumultuous. But, somehow, none of that feels as daunting as it had a week before, not when she has everything she needs and wants within her grasp. Not when she is so happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all folks. Thank you to those of you who have followed along and kudosed and commented and all that good stuff. It makes me so happy to know you've enjoyed it <3
> 
> I'm vaguely considering adding to this 'verse in the future with one shots from before and after but I have a lot of other stuff to do first so we'll see. I'll let you know here if I do add anything :)
> 
> This will probably be my last post of the year (and it includes my 400,000th word on AO3! That's insane to me) as I'm very busy and battling to get at least 40k written before the new year so I can finish my biggest project of the year and start editing it so I can post it. We'll see how that goes. Happy holidays, stay safe, social distance and wear a mask <3

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be posting updates about fics on my twitter ([@MagusLibera](https://twitter.com/MagusLibera)) soon and if you want to see why I love Lettie so much go check her twitter out [@damnsmoaky](https://twitter.com/damnsmoaky) and also read her fics if you haven't already because they're great :)


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